


Our Dreams at Dawn: A Pokémon Story

by theworkingprince



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl & Platinum | Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum Versions
Genre: Boys In Love, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Everyone Has Issues, Everyone Is Gay, Family Drama, Father-Son Relationship, Gay Male Character, Hope, Hopefully I'll know how to write great sex scenes, I hope people like this, I really love the plot of this, LGBTQ Character of Color, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, POV First Person, POV Original Character, Please Leave Comments, Pokemon Fanfiction, Self-Acceptance, Self-Discovery, Tell me what you think so far and what you’re really loving!, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-03-07 12:01:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 40,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18872815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theworkingprince/pseuds/theworkingprince
Summary: Abelino has never once seen the outside world or at least he can't remember ever having seen it. With an overprotective mother who worries about a terrifying "illness" he's afflicted by, he's been waiting and waiting for the day he can finally start living to come. When unexpected truths are revealed and more mysteries arise, Abelino will have to rise to the occasion and become the Pokémon trainer he always knew he was at heart! In a Pokémon world set years after the events of Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, the safety of all those in Sinnoh are in grave danger as a new organization looms hidden beneath the chaos, pulling the strings to stow fear. With the League paralyzed by indecision, the public ignorant and unaware, and the suspicions held of Sinesensu Pharmaceutical Company, our heroes have few to turn to. On this journey of love and self-discovery, what awaits?





	1. Episode 1: Abelino

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all really enjoy this! This is a really big passion project of mine as a huge fan of Pokémon and writing in general. I know it might be a bit jarring to follow along with a trainer you've never met before, but I hope you guys give Abelino a chance and this story one as well. This is definitely a different take on the Pokémon world, but I hope its compelling and striking in fun, unusual, and spectacular ways for you guys. Thanks for reading!

“Mother. Wouldn’t it be best to test how far the treatment has come along by allowing me to go outside?”  
“Absolutely not! Don’t be ridiculous. There are still far too many unknown variables regarding the memory triggers.”  
“But I’d be going out with your supervision. As long as you’re watching, you could make sure things go accordingly and we could…”  
“No! AMR still requires more analysis. The memory triggers might produce adverse effects.”  
“But if we don’t know what those adverse effects are, we’ll never be able to fix the treatment so I can finally get better. We have to…”  
“I SAID NO!”  
I stopped speaking and sat down on my bed. My mother’s red hair was done up in a tight bun as she hovered over me sending a nasty glare. Her dark brown eyes glimmered with anger as she paced back and forth in front of me. She was wearing her signature lab coat and held a vial of my blood in her left hand. A long sigh left her mouth as she once again turned to face me again.  
“I realize that you want to go outside, but I know what’s best for you and until I can be certain that AMR is perfected I won’t allow it. Please, don’t ask me for permission to go outside. Would you love to see me suffer when you have an adverse reaction to some allergen while outside? Would it amuse you to see me cry over you in some emergency room?”  
“No.”  
“Then why would you worry me with such questions, hmm? Honestly Abelino, I’m doing this for your own good.”  
I stared down at my hands as I silently nodded.  
“I know.”  
“It must be frustrating to be treated like a child, but you are still my child and the only family I have left in this world. You make me feel like my work isn’t adequate enough for you at times. All this pressure isn’t good for me!”  
She rubbed her forehead with her right hand and turned away from me. I looked up and sent her a small smile.  
“I know mother. Sorry, my impatience isn’t very right of me. The work you’re doing is meant to help people that are just like me not just myself. I’m really too selfish aren’t I.”  
“Yes, you are. I suppose there’s still a bit of your father in you after all.”  
My heart lurched a bit at the comparison and my mother turned to see my wincing face. She rolled her eyes with a sigh and walked up to kneel beside me.  
“Don’t look so pathetic. See, this is why I worry about you venturing outside. You are still far too sentimental about words and commentary. The world outside isn’t going to be as kind as your mother. They’ll tell you you can’t style your hair well enough for it not to look like a bird’s nest. They’ll tell you you’ve been growing a belly,” she slapped my stomach as she said that, “and they’ll tell you are weak and naïve. They’ll tell you you have horrible style and I mean, it’ll all be painfully true until you pull yourself together. You’ve got to build some backbone! Until that happens, you’re too small to be a part of that world.”  
“I know.”  
She fixed my bottle cap glasses and patted my head.  
“Trust me. I know what I am doing. I’ll see you when I get back from the lab.”  
She gave me one last pat before she grabbed her bag and began to make her way downstairs. I heard the front door click with a lock and stared off at the empty air for her.  
“I’ll be here.”  
I frowned and went over to my mirror to look at myself.  
I had on a black, baggy sweater and white shorts that made my already thin arms and legs look more like twigs. My red, longish hair was a complete tousled mess and my mother would probably have to cut it sooner or later. She hated my longer hair. There were slight, dark circles under my brown eyes that glimmered under my glasses and my brown skin looked a bit flushed with sadness. Mother might be right. I don’t really look like anything close to a trainer let alone someone capable of going out on their own journey. Her eye was just behind the glass. I knew it. Wherever her glare went, I could follow it and see what was wrong. I touched the mirror gently before tossing myself back on my bed.  
There’s always been this silence, this emptiness all around me that is hard to explain. It might be the sterile whiteness of my home, the nonexistent windows, or the fact that there’s no one ever around to talk to, but I think its something else. It’s like there is some skip in the beating of my heart that suddenly puts me in a panic that I might stop having blood course through my veins. It feels life threatening like if I don’t recover that missing beat, that missing thing I might drop dead. It’s an unknown fear of mine and one that is difficult to explain.  
Mother says I’m imagining things, but I don’t really think she pays much attention to what I say. She never really pays me attention. But the minute I even suggests that desire to go outside for once in my life, she goes through a strange transformation. Her eyes will scan me with a laser focus like there’s something on me she is expecting to see. She looks like some mean and merciless stranger who forgot she was my mother. But as quickly as that transformation comes, another takes place where she throws her arms around me and begins sobbing huge, fat tears. She’ll whine about how dangerous it is for me to go outside and how I was being so selfish by threatening her with such a thing as leaving. She usually ends up hitting me if I persist with leaving as well but it’s her way of protecting me I suppose.  
I’ve lived my whole life within these four walls as far back as I can remember and I can’t remember much. Anytime I try to close my eyes and think this enormous headache just crashes down on me and the CS device on my arm has to release the chemical AMR treatment.  
I have a really horrifying disease that makes it impossible for me to go outside or really do anything that is strenuous even thinking too hard about things is dangerous. My mother works at this super big pharmaceutical company called Sinesensu if I can remember it correctly. She was part of the team of scientist who were researching how to alter the body’s memory functions using our nervous systems in the hope to cure a very serious disease like mine. The idea is that your body “forgets” a disease by changing the chemical make up of your body ever slightly. It can’t cure it so far; the AMR treatment is only a prototype but it can lessen the pain for a lot of people. That’s why despite how much I hate this house I don’t complain much. I know mother is working really hard to get the AMR fully functional to save a lot of lives.  
I wasn’t lying about the whiteness of the house either. Everything was coated in a pristine white color that was routinely cleaned by automated bots to ensure there were no germs or bacteria growing that I could accidentally touch and get sick from.  
The only escape from the emptiness was here in my room. Since I was the only one ever in here, it was fine to have stuff collected that my mom had screened and brought to me as a gift. As I laid on the light green sheets of my bed, I was surrounded by plushies of Pokémon that my mom knew I would like. I’ve never seen an actual Pokémon in the flesh but my mom swears that my favorite are the real intimidating and powerful kind like Salamence or Garchomp but even having their plushies I’m not very convinced that I like them. They just don’t really speak to me but my mom says all the male trainers gravitate toward Pokémon like that so I should too. I just think it's nicer to have some color in the room so I might as well have them. Like these sheets? Ugh. I hate green its such a meh color but I can’t really remember what was my favorite color. Mom says it's green but it is not green.  
Everything in this room was more my mom than me. Plushies? Mom. Colors? Mom. Female Pokémon Trainer posters? Like what are those even supposed to do to make me happy mom?  
I hopped off my bed and rummaged under it to get my box of secret treasures that I had to keep hidden from mom. It wasn’t anything I thought was really shameful I just knew my mom would lose it if she knew I had a knack for tech and could easily mess with all the tech she had around the house. I had a holocaster I fixed up that my mom tried tossing out but I wanted to take a look at it so she gave it to me probably thinking I was too stupid to figure out how it worked, a few used up electric starters that I took from some of the cleaner bots that I dismantled which was admittedly cruel of me, and some other bits and pieces of the cleaner bots that I had used to make a screwdriver. The holocaster was the only window I had to the outside world and the only way for me to escape all the emptiness around me. I just had to tweak the settings to run through the channel signals and find a strong connection to latch on to. But as I sat there I couldn’t help remember the way my mother described my attempts to prove myself, to show her I was not some pushover. Naïve, foolish, childish, are some of the things she’s called me before. Sometimes she says I’m an idiot if she’s particularly frustrated with work. The only reason she thinks I am weak is because of this body of mine that can’t seem to keep itself together! If I wasn’t so sick, I’d be out there competing and researching all the Pokémon and tech there was to find!  
I know I’m strong! I know I’m capable! Mother just has to be able to see it and when she finishes the AMR chemical treatment she’ll with all confidence give me her blessing to go out on my own trainer adventure!  
I spent a few minutes trying to control my breathing as I realized I had been so distracted with my attempt to reassure myself that I completely forgot I was supposed to be searching for channel feeds. I waited until a white noise projection began to light up and slowly turn into a crisp, clear signal from a live broadcast.  
A tall woman with brown hair, pale skin, and sharp blue eyes stood beside a round desk smiling warmly at the screen.  
“I’m Emily Patterson signing off for the Sinnoh Public Broadcast Network. Please, stay tuned for the exclusive live broadcast of the Sinnoh League Finals Tournament live from the Pokémon League with commentators William West and Erika Tang!”  
The feed immediately cut and now a large stadium choke full of people was being shown and it was so loud I had to lower the holocaster’s volume before intently scanning the crowd. In the middle of the stadium was an empty square field with a circular symbol in the middle and two platforms were set up at the opposing ends. Spotlights of various colors were zooming across the crowd and the field and you could see the sparkling stars of the night sky over the open dome. Two large screens hung over the north and south ends of the stadium and below those screens were what appeared to be tunnel entrances where I assumed the trainers would step out. This was going to be my first time watching a league final!  
Just then a man and woman appeared at the bottom right corner of the holocaster projection with microphones. A man with a sleek black suit and brown hair stood smiling beside a woman in a striking, blood-red suit and glimmering white hair. The man spoke first.  
“Hello, fellow viewers! Welcome to the Sinnoh League Finals live from the Pokémon League. I’m William West here along with Erika Tang to bring you right to the heart of this most intense moment in Sinnoh League history. Former Champion Cynthia has been vying for her comeback after years out of the spotlight in this League against the now League Champion Lautaro head of the Sinesensu Pharmaceutical Company. Erika interviewed the former champion on her reasoning for pushing this comeback after years of traveling various regions outside of Sinnoh.”  
Sinesensu Pharmaceutical Company? That’s the company my mom was developing the AMR chemical for! Her boss is a Pokémon trainer? She never really showed much of an interest in Pokémon and she almost seemed repulsed by them yet the company she worked for seemed totally okay with it.  
“Yes William, I sat down with Cynthia yesterday to discuss her opinions on the current state of Sinnoh, including the Leagues ban on LGBTQ trainers after the Snowpoint City incident a couple of weeks prior to the beginning of the tournament, the rise of the Sinesensu Pharmaceutical Company, and what she thinks of the current champion. Take a look.”  
The projection switched off the stadium broadcast to a video where Erika was sat in front of the woman I assume was Cynthia. She had long, blonde hair with warm brown eyes and a really soft smile. She was wearing a black pantsuit.  
“So Cynthia everyone in Sinnoh is dying to know this, but why now? Why decide to push to reclaim the title of champion after all these years?”  
“Well thank you for having me Erika and I just wanted to say that I am scared for Sinnoh’s future. I think it has become evident after the Snowpoint City incident where individuals of a radical hate group injured multiple trainers that the League is not doing what it should to protect the region and the trainers targeted by these groups. Certainly, we can agree that Champion Lautaro’s decision to ban LGBTQ trainers from the league for their ‘safety’ is just feeding into and legitimizing the groups attempts to marginalize the community. We need services and policy that directly speaks to the needs of these trainers and all this current policy accomplishes is imparting the sentiment that the League does not value their identities or their lives. I think we need a champion who will direct the League with competence and empathy now more than ever.”  
My head began to ache dully and I had to shake my head to rid myself of the pain. I really liked how Cynthia was speaking and despite never having known about her I knew she was speaking truthfully about making meaningful change.  
“Of course, Cynthia was referring to the decision made three weeks ago by the League to ban all queer identifying trainers from the tournament until their safety could be assured. Recent public polling found that most of Sinnohans view this policy with majority approval until the violence can be remedied with only a small minority fiercely opposing the decision. Now, let's go back to the League where the match is close to starting!”  
Again, my head ached a bit more painfully and I closed my eyes to gather myself a little before looking back at the screen.  
Now the view was of the stadium again, but this time the spotlights had died down and the great, heavy silence that hung over the entire crowd was so immense that even I found myself frozen in place not wanting to make a sound. Then suddenly the lights snapped on at the two opposing tunnel entrances of the stadium.  
“Wellllllllllcomeeeee to the Sinnoooooh League Finaaaaaaaals!!!!”  
The crowd burst into cheers and screams and I even found myself clapping and jumping along in the silent walls of my room.  
“We have today for you a match to end alllll matches. Each breath held, each scream let out, and each tear shed has been leading up to this moment! Can we get hyped up?”  
A booming “Yes!” echoed across the stadium.  
“Oh come on! You can hype this up more can’t you?”  
“YES!”  
“One last time!”  
“YESSSS!”  
I slapped my hand over my mouth the minute that I heard myself scream along and blushed profusely even looking around to make sure no one saw. I had seen a few Pokémon battles before on the holocaster but this one felt different somehow. There was heaviness that pumped a thrill in my blood to see who would win and despite only being told about her mere seconds ago I was already clutching my hand to my chest rooting for Cynthia to pull through.  
“We have at the south entrance the current League Champion, chemist, and CEO of Sinesensu: LAUTARO!!”  
The camera snapped to the southern tunnel along with the spotlights and out stepped a rather intimidating and gruff man. He was burly and almost tall enough to just stretch his hand and touch the lip of the tunnel ceiling and he wore a sleek and polished brown suit. His black hair was short and straight with piercing emerald eyes shimmering on his long, brown face. He took long steps before reaching the small, raised platforms near the field.  
“And in the north entrance, we have the darling of myths, former Champion of Sinnoh, and world-class beauty: CYNTHIA!!”  
The spotlight and camera swung to the north tunnel and out came Cynthia to the sound of deafening cheers. This time she had on a dark, fur coat over a shimmering white pantsuit that made her white skin sparkle under the multicolored spotlights. She gave a warm smile and waved at the crowd as she made her way to her designated platform and I even saw people in the crowd holding up neon light sticks that together spelled: WE LOVE CYNTHIA.  
“Now, let's get down to business. This match will be a full, six Pokémon battle and the first trainer to have no Pokémon left standing loses. No items will be allowed so you will have to fight until a Pokémon faints or switch out. In order to decide who will go first and decide the typing of the field, we will flip a coin. As Cynthia is the challenger, she gets the right to call out first.”  
The announcer came floating out to the middle of the field with a hover platform that had me captivated for a second wondering how it worked. He produced a coin and flipped it in the air.  
“Tails.”  
The announcer caught the coin and opened his hand to reveal that the coin had really landed on tails.  
“Tails it is. Cynthia has the right of the first turn. What field typing would you like?”  
“I’d like to keep the field as is.”  
“Ok.”  
The announcer floated off camera and Cynthia produced her first pokéball as did Lautaro.  
“Here it is folks! Get ready! This is a match for the books! The League title is on the line! CYNTHIA VS. LAUTARO: START!!”  
Cynthia and Lautaro threw their pokéballs and out of Cynthia’s came out a Togekiss while out of Lautaro’s came out a Gallade. I thought Togekiss was so adorable and Gallade were so cool! I only knew of them thanks to previous broadcasts I’d watched, but they were sooooo great!  
“Togekiss use Air Slash!”  
Togekiss flew up super high into the sparkling sky before nose-diving toward the Gallade.  
“Gallade use Confusion.”  
Just as the wing of Togekiss connected to the Gallade, the Gallade used confusion directly in front of Togekiss’s head. The Gallade went flying and got slammed right into the green turf of the field but Togekiss was struggling a bit to fly now.  
“Come on Togekiss, just hang in there and finish him up with another Air Slash!”  
Togekiss repeated its earlier movement, but the Gallade was now standing.  
“Gallade jump up and use Low Kick.”  
The Gallade jumped up and raised its leg ready to kick Togekiss, but Cynthia was quick on her feet.  
“Togekiss! Dodge that and do a sharp turn back with Air Slash!”  
Togekiss swerved to the left and dodged the Low Kick before swinging back and slamming the Gallade’s back with an Air Slash and sending the poor guy spinning right into the ground. His green head tried to lift itself from under the dirt it was covered in but the Gallade ultimately collapsed back to the ground. I smiled and clapped wildy.  
“Gallade is unable to battle!”  
Cynthia smiled and the crowd gave a cheer. I expected Lautaro to be upset about having his first Pokémon fainted but he had a strange, uneasy smile that made me furrow my eyebrows and when I looked over I saw Cynthia had a similarly puzzled expression. Togekiss was also not looking too good. It was still flying but it had begun to swerve and wobble from left to right.  
Lautaro tossed out another pokéball and this time a Metagross came out.  
“Metagross use bullet punch.”  
“Togekiss u…”  
The Metagross was too quick though and quickly floated over to the confused Togekiss and began launching a barrage of punches that kept smacking the poor Pokémon from left to right before the Metagross finished it off with a huge punch that slammed the Togekiss into the ground. The resounding crunch of the punches had me wincing as I looked at the fainted Togekiss.  
“Togekiss is unable to battle!”  
“You did well Togekiss.”  
Cynthia returned Togekiss to its pokéball and brought out another that she touched to her forehead before tossing out.  
“Go Garchomp use Earthqu…”  
Suddenly a booming explosion rocked the entire stadium, right where the eastern seating area was. Angry red smoke began to billow out from below where a hole was now torn into the stands. Before anyone could react more explosions began to sound off and you could see large tendrils of red smoke begin to grow like vines from more gaping holes in the seating area. Screams began to burst out along with the fires The large screens above the tunnel entrances groaned before slamming into the field with a loud moan combusting into a pile of molten flames. That was when the feed turned into a haunting, gurgling static.  
The gurgling was suddenly cut and I was once again looking at the face of Emily Patterson on my holocaster.  
“We…regrettably must inform our audience that there appears…to have been some sort of attack at the Pokémon League. We’ve lost communication with our two colleagues William and Erika at this moment but are working to establish what exactly is going on at the…”  
Right then the holocaster blacked out and I let out a groan.  
“No, no, no! I need to keep following what’s going on!”  
I need to get more electric starters but the cleaner bots have all gone away for the day and wouldn’t be back until the next! I had to think, think. Where the hell would there be anyway to power the holocaster? I stood and paced back and forth before rushing back to my treasure box and taking out my screwdriver. I left my room and rushed down the hall toward my mother’s room. She had to have something close to a battery for me to work with!  
I pushed open her door with a very timid nudge half expecting my mother to descend upon me like a Gengar. When my heart stopped beating like a lunatic, I made my way inside with tentative steps toward the large dresser she had along the wall. I didn’t really need the screwdriver for this, but I figured since this is my mother I’m talking about, she probably has some secret safe or box where she locks up things she doesn’t want me to get a hold of, like spare bot parts and electric starters!  
I gently moved shirts and scarfs around but there wasn’t really anything of note under any of her things. In fact…I gazed around the room and took notice of how empty and silent my mother’s room felt too. But unlike mine that was full of some form of warmth, hers was just as cold and vacant as the rest of the house so much so that even the fabric of her clothes felt ice cold. It didn’t feel like a home.  
I shook my head and rushed over to the closet and found it full of dresses that were all black and with no real distinguishing style from one another. But beneath those dresses, was a small metal box that looked really ancient and I grabbed the cool metal square and placed it in front of me so I could inspect it.  
The coat of teal paint had begun to rust around the edges of the box and when I pushed it it let out a tiny groan of agony. It wasn’t anything tech savvy like my mother had decked the house with which was strange to me since mother always spoke about progress with such reverent words. She would always point to the data on the AMR and say “Ha, progress!” while raising the dose of the chemical. When I asked her if we could attempt just walking outside as a test run for its effectiveness, she’d wave me off and say “You know nothing. Progress is progress. We’re getting there bit by bit just be patient.” But I have waited patiently for so long, I’m 20 now, and there always seems to be another step to progress in my way. One more dosage or tweak to the CS device to do. One more reason I was too dumb to push myself further.  
Always waiting.  
But enough of that lets open this box.  
There were screws keeping the whole thing together, rusted pretty badly, but if I was careful I could unscrew them and get into the contents of the box. There were 12 screws in total and I set to the task of undoing them. Just as I was pulling out the last screw, the whole thing collapsed and let out a huge cloud of dust that had me quickly covering my nose. Shoot! I’ll have to clean up this dust along with reassembling this box or mother would know!  
I was beginning to have a serious panic attack about what mother would do if she realized I was meddling around when I felt a light tap against my thigh. I looked down and saw a really strange, small ball.  
I picked it up and it had a green, black, and orange color scheme with six green circles, black space between the circles, and an orange line running through the middle with a small, orange button. It fit right into the palm of my hand.  
This was all really strange. This looked like a pokéball but not one I’d ever seen. And if this was a pokéball, why would it be in this box? Why would mother have this box hidden away here? Did the pokéball have a Pokémon inside it?  
I turned the ball so that the orange button was facing me and twiddled it between my fingers.  
Should I?  
If this thing had a Garchomp like Cynthia’s, it would wreck this entire room and there’d be no way to hide what I’d done if I even lived the room collapsing on me. But my curiosity was just gnawing at me to know!  
I quickly pressed my finger on the button and the ball opened and a stream of red light burst out onto the floor. The light slowly began to take the shape of a small form and I waited with held breath to see what it was. When the light faded, I titled my head in confusion. This is a Pokémon I’d never seen through the holocaster before. It had two bent ears with black tips and two faces. One of the faces was on what I would think was the head but the eyes looked like two black spots that were colored in with a craggy maker line as a mouth and two orange circles as cheeks that also looked drawn. The second face was only a pair of eyes that were where I thought the body was and it had a small, brown tail that kind of looked like a lightning bolt. Strange, shadowy tendrils oozed from the flaps at the bottom of its yellow body.  
It moved, well more like slid, closer and I leaned in to look at it closer. I was right at face level when it made a soft cry, like a baby’s scream, and tapped me on the nose with a tendril that made me jump a little. I gave a small smile and I tapped its ear with a finger and it repeated the gesture by tapping my ear which made me laugh.  
“Hey little guy! I have no idea how you managed to live in that ball so long, but I’m happy to have the company. I wonder what kind of Pokémon you are? I’ve never seen one like you during the tournament live feeds.”  
It let out another soft scream and began to slide around a pile of pictures and papers that had also been inside the box. I grabbed the photos first to look through them.  
The first photo was just one of my mom in a sun hat on some beach, but the second one had my heart stopping. I took my right hand and caressed his outline.  
He was incredibly tall with dark brown skin and deep brown eyes. A dark beard covered his jaw and he was smiling at the camera while nuzzling the smaller head of a younger me. I was dressed up in small, baby blue overalls with yellow boots and right on top of my red hair was the Pokémon that sat right in front of me. The third photo was a much older me riding up on the shoulders of him.  
A shadowy tendril touched the picture as well and I turned in confusion to the Pokémon beside me.  
“I don’t understand…mother said dad just left us because of my illness. That he couldn’t bear to have some weak boy as a son. I don’t…I don’t get this. I don’t…ahh!”  
I clutched my head and started rocking myself back and forth. It was too much to think about! I can’t get it at all! Why would my mother lie? Why would she keep this from me? What did she get by doing this? Why, why, why? AHHH! It felt like my mind was lagging behind my body. I was struggling to catch something, but I wasn’t really sure what that was. I had to remember something, but I just couldn’t.  
I scrambled through the papers hoping I could find something to give my mind the answer it needed so it would stop aching in agony. My eyes tried to pry open to skim each of the documents inside. They all had the huge, ghastly font of the Sinesensu company with its logo and name on the top. Everyone was titled: PROGRESS OF SUBJECT ZERO. With my left hand still clutching my head, I began to read the one that looked the newest. It was difficult, but I managed to read the first paragraph that said:  
Re: Subject Zero [Abelino]  
Camila,  
I have read the data given by the CS device on Subject Zero and have deep cause for concern about the viability of AMR in mass use. It appears that the AMR compound has only succeeded in numbing and damaging the subject’s memory receptors but it has not altered them in any way, shape, or form. Despite three years of extensive treatment, the episodes of relapse and triggers seem to be increasing precariously and I fear that the moment the subject regains partial memory and more importantly, memory of his attraction to men, is coming soon. I know you’ve been a dedicated admin for the organization ever since the discovery that your son was inflicted by these peculiar tendencies and that AMR is your child. Your wish to rid your son of this mortifying behavior is laudable and noble. Hopefully, very soon, you might afford other mothers the means to rid their own children of this terrifying epidemic. Please, continue the monitoring of Subject Zero and maintain me informed on your progress on more directly altering the function of the memory receptors of the individual’s brain. For family, for order, for love.  
With warm regards,  
The Father.  
“You just couldn’t contain that sinful curiosity could you?”  
My head was aching so badly that my vision was blurring and I hadn’t taken notice of anyone entering the house or room. But the chilling, monotone cut of the voice through the air was instantly recognizable and I curled into myself.  
“Moth…mother I…don…”  
“Don’t mother me!”  
I felt a sharp kick to my stomach and I keeled over to the side feeling a new pain blossom  
along my waist with the blooming headache that was wrecking my head. Another hard jab landed on my rib cage and right after came a flurry of others.  
“You…have…ruined…months of progress…months of…research.”  
My hands tried to follow the hits and block them but I couldn’t! There were too many flowers of pain blooming all over. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t, I can’t!  
Then I felt the cool leather of a boot slam into my left cheek and my body slid back on the floor slightly.  
“You’re a pathetic excuse for a son.”  
My eyes went wide open and my heart suddenly lurched inside my chest. The blooming pain in my body and head suddenly withered away under the immensity of my heart’s aching. Warm, hot tears began trickling down my cheeks like small roots. Her words kept looping and looping around back and forth between my ear. Pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic. She thinks I’m noting. I am nothing. I’d rather be nothing. This voice wouldn’t go away!  
“I guess I’ll just have to increase the dosage of AMR in your CS device so we can start from scratch again. The Father is going to be upset the trial has hit a roadblock but I’ve nearly perfected the compound to fully…what’s this?”  
I tried to follow her gaze and saw the small Pokémon from the pokéball sliding over right by my chest. It began to make a lot of small screeches as two long, shadowy claws emerged from beneath it. My mother sent it a twisted, sickly smile.  
“Right. Of course, you’d take the side of him. Couldn’t expect anything less from Federico’s Mimikyu. That bastard tried protecting our poor excuse of a son right up until the end.”  
Right up until the end? Did she…my father?  
“What…What do you…mean? Did yo…ahhh!”  
I received another kick to the face and my headache burst with a new intensity.  
She threw a pokéball from her purse and a really nasty looking purple serpent that was two heads taller than her came out of it hissing angrily.  
“Use Poison Jab Arbok.”  
The Arbok spit out small bullets of purple liquid that slammed right into Mimikyu, sending him flying.  
“NO! Sto…stop it. You…you’re hurting him.”  
I fought with all my strength using my hands to push myself from the floor and managed to stand shakily on my feet. My entire body was still reeling under all the pain, but I couldn’t let my mother do this! It was fine for me to suffer but I couldn’t let anyone, even a Pokémon suffer for me.  
“How amusing. Arbok use Gla…”  
A huge ball of dark light slammed into both my mother and the Arbok sending them crashing through the door and into the hall. I turned my head and saw Mimikyu sliding up to me. It tapped its head to my leg and made one of those soft screams it had made when we first met. I kneeled down and gave it a small pet on the head.  
“Thank…you. Sorry I…failed you there. I’m…not very…in shape am…I.”  
It made another scream and I sent it a small smile.  
I looked over at the small rectangle of the CS device embedded right on my wrist and touched it gently with my left hand. As long as this thing was attached to me I would continue to be under the influence of the AMR chemical and my mother could probably track me down because she surely has a way to do so. I had to take it off and it was going to suck.  
I looked over at the dismantled box from earlier and picked up my screwdriver and also went over to the dresser and snatched a small scarf. I took the screwdriver in my left hand and wedged it under the CS device and with all my strength I began pushing the screwdriver up. The pain was instant. I could see my skin being torn off as it stuck to the bottom of the device and small barely noticeable tendrils of wire came with it. Most of it had been pried off my arm but one final tubing with a tipped syringe-like needle remained that was directly connected to my vein. I took a few quick breaths before again pushing the screwdriver up and the needle popped off and the whole CS went flying onto the floor. Blood began to sputter out however and I quickly used the scarf as a wrapping to stop the blood.  
The headache began to numb a bit after this but my body was still burning up.  
I quickly scooped up the photos, documents, and pokéball that I had uncovered along with Mimikyu which I placed on my shoulder. When I went out into the hallway, my mom’s groaning body laid under slabs of wood and her Arbok was knocked unconscious. I stepped over them and rushed towards my room. I picked up my treasure box that I had left on my bed and threw all the stuff I was carrying in there. I looked around the room to see if there was anything to take with me and I shook my head.  
This place was empty. There was nothing in here that was any part of me.  
I picked up the box and made my way quickly down the stairs, but just as I turned to head towards the front door I was punched again in my left cheek. The sudden attack sent me reeling to the right but I managed to balance my self and look towards where the hit came.  
In front of me stood my mother, but she wasn’t really there anymore. She had transformed again like she had whenever I got her mad. Her brown eyes seemed to have this glimmering gloss and narrowness that made it seem like she was sizing you up. Her hair was splayed out on her forehead and swung back and forth across her eyes like a curtain opening and closing. She held no clear expression on her face and she simply shook her right hand a little as she stepped, with small and long strides, closer to me.  
“Ah, just like Federico.”  
“Who’s Federico?”  
“The little Raticate of a father you oh so resemble and take after.”  
“You said fath…”  
“I know what I said and you were stupid enough to believe me. After all, what can you expect of a little Clefairy like you. To think I wasted twenty years playing family in order to not arouse suspicion from the League and public, only to be rewarded with you. At least you served some purpose in the end.”  
“Who are you?”  
“Ha, wouldn’t you like to know. I think it would be better to die at the hands of your mother than a stranger, wouldn’t you? It’ll be more touching and poetic that way.”  
She launched herself forward and I swerved away to avoid her hits. We dropped lamps, vases, and glass ornaments that shattered and scattered across the tiled floor. I tried my best to avoid the sparkling shards, but I was also trying to swerve away from her hits and it made the task more difficult.  
“I don’t want to hurt you!”  
“And that’s exactly the problem. You’re not even man enough to fight back. I couldn’t accept a waste of a son who would rather run off with another man. I’d rather you have died at birth so I was saved the trouble.”  
I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. She was still trying to hit me, but right then I raised my fist and slammed her right cheek with a punch. I strange emotion crawled across my skin as she stumbled backward, touching her cheek as she went before snapping towards me with a glimmering glare.  
I wasn’t empty.  
“So now the bitch decides to fight back.”  
Mimikyu let out a scream and jumped off my shoulder to the ground. It turned towards me and I looked at it a bit surprised before I suddenly understood. My heart fluttered a bit.  
He wanted me to tell it what move to use, but I didn’t know anything about moves! And to use a move on my own mother? That’s crazy! But Mimikyu thought of me as its trainer, it already wanted to stick with me. It believed in me. It knew me…Suddenly the emptiness I felt before faded, even if it was only slightly.  
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them, I looked right at my mother and pointed my finger at her.  
“I don’t know why you hate me. Why you hated me enough to make me forget myself. But I will tell you this, I am not empty! I am not weak! Whatever sick and twisted experiment you were running by me I will figure it out and make sure you never, never make the mistake of using it on someone else. I will remember. I will find myself again and when I do, I’ll make sure you know!”  
“It’s all talk. You don’t have it in you!”  
“Mimikyu! Break through the wall!”  
Mimikyu formed a huge dark, ball and launched it in the direction of my mother. She rolled out of the way and the ball slammed into the wall in a huge explosive cloud of cement bricks and dust making it completely crumble down. A cold wind began to blow in along with white flakes of snow and for a moment I was mesmerized. I didn’t remember how the wind felt and just how open the world was, but the moonlight that flowed in like a river seemed to draw me out like the tide. It was inviting me to the beginning of my own story.  
“Nice job Mimikyu! Let’s go!”  
I began to make my way towards the outdoors when my hair was suddenly yanked back and I tried to pry off the thin fingers that gripped the bunch of red strands.  
“You listen here brat! I WILL NOT LET YOU GO. All my work is inside you, a part of you and I need to finish this. I need to cure you and then help other poor mothers burdened with pathetic sons and daughters to cure them as we…”  
I slammed my elbow into her stomach and she let go of my hair, keeling over as she clutched her stomach.  
“I…m doing th…this for you! Out there…they won’t…they won’t love you. The…they’ll be disgusted…and sickened to their…stomachs. You’ll have…no one…not even a…hateful mother. You’re probably…already imagining this fairytale…ending that everyone will…just open their arms for…you. You have nothing…to offer.”  
“You’re wrong! I am sure they’ll be people just like you. People who think I’m twisted. But they’ll be just as many people who will love me for who I become, for whoever I was before you tried to change me.  
I’m…sorry I wasn’t the son you thought I’d be, but I won’t be sorry for the man I end up becoming.”  
Just then I heard her let out an angry yell before she rushed at me with a piece of broken glass. But before she could even reach me, Mimikyu formed another shadow ball and launched it at her. It slammed into her and flung her across the living room slamming her into the wooden staircase. She remained there under splinters and pieces of wood…motionless. I looked at her one more time with a parting glance before turning my back and making my way out of the house.  
“Let’s…let’s go Mimikyu.”  
I picked Mimikyu up in my arms and began to leave.  
When my feet hit the snowy ground, I realized that I didn’t have any kind of shoes or boots. It was the first time I really thought about the fact I didn’t have any footwear at all. I guess it was just another layer of security to make sure I wouldn’t be stupid enough to run away into the snowy forest without shoes. But I guess I am stupid enough to do this.  
I glanced around but noticed that the house was just standing in the middle of a forest clearing with no clear paths or trails to follow. I didn’t even know where I was exactly. I knew this was Sinnoh because of the holocaster feeds but…I could be anywhere within the region. The holocaster was also a no go because I didn’t have an electric starter to power it and I wasn’t going back inside and risking my mother waking up to find me.  
“I guess…we just start walking somewhere Mimikyu.”  
Mimikyu nuzzled my chin in assurance and I gave it a small smile before I began marching east toward the pine forest.  
The moon kept me company as it followed me from above, occasionally getting lost behind fluffy grey clouds and a gentle wind carried the falling snowflakes in a small dance before they hit the ground. It was all beautiful, but I couldn’t really appreciate it. At the moment my feet were soaked and freezing and my entire body was raw from the beating I had endured earlier. Not to mention I had only a scarf preventing me from bleeding to death quickly. I looked down at the black fabric and touched it noticing the sticky warmness knowing I was still bleeding underneath it. I needed to find help!  
I had been walking for a long while when I saw two low lights in the distance moving further ahead and my heart nearly leaped out of my chest. I began to push myself into a run going fast enough to slightly blur the pine trees around me.  
“Hello! Hello! Is anyone there? I…I really need help!”  
I noticed the two lights stop and stand in place. As I kept running, the lights grew bigger and bigger until I finally reached them.  
Two tall men stood before me holding lanterns. One of them was bundled up in a fuzzy, light blue sweater with fuzzy teal ear muffs that went well with his aquamarine colored hair. The other man was wearing a black trench coat with a white scarf and his hair was black with streaks of white in it. The two looked at me with eyes full of surprise and worry.  
“Oh my, you must be freezing dressed up like that! What are you doing out here on Route 217 at such a time? We have to get you out of this weather! Come, come. Grimsley here will carry you.”  
The man with black and white hair took off his coat so that he only wore a black turtleneck and lifted me up in one swoop, wrapping me up in his coat. I was too stunned to be interacting with someone for the first time I couldn’t actually remember to respond in any way. I wasn’t some little kid, but this man, Grimsley, just lifted me with complete ease!  
“Could we get your name?”  
“My name…is Abelino. Thank you…for helping.”  
The man with aquamarine hair waved the thanks away with a hand.  
“Don’t worry dear. I’m Wallace and this here is my boyfriend Grimsley.”  
“Boyfriend?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Boyfriend?”  
“Yeah. Pretty sure I said that already. Are you not okay with that?”  
“Oh no, sorry…I just am having a hard time remembering if I maybe had one.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah…I can’t really remember a lot.”  
“Why’s that?”  
“My…my…my…”  
I frowned a bit getting a bit choked up about the incident with my mother. I guess after all the adrenaline it was finally hitting me that I didn’t have a home and my mother disowned me because she thought I was disgusting. Not to mention she seemed to be working for an evil pharmaceutical company that was planning to do something with the AMR chemical. I felt eyes on me and Grimsley was looking down at me and Wallace glanced over as well.  
“Give the kid a break Wallace. Looks like he’s been through a lot.”  
“Right! Sorry about that Abelino. I’m usually a bit of a chatterbox.”  
“I’d say a lot more than just a bit.”  
Wallace pulled Grimsely’s ear gently before clicking his tongue.  
“Don’t listen to that old man. We’ll get you fixed and warmed up! Promise!”  
I looked at them with wide, admiring eyes as they walked silently alongside one another. Mimikyu made a soft scream and I turned to look at him snuggled close to my neck.  
“I’ll ask about the Mimikyu and what happened to you later. You should get some sleep kiddo. It’s a bit of a walk.”  
I nodded my head and closed my eyes slowly choosing to listen to his suggestion.  
My mother was wrong. These two strangers I met didn’t run away in disgust or hatred from me. In fact, one of them was carrying me! Whatever illness my mom thought I had Wallace and Grimsley couldn’t see it or didn’t care for it. I didn’t know why I felt safe and comfortable enough to not think twice about being held like this, but I just knew I could trust them. This was a new start for me, for me and Mimikyu now. It felt warm to know that I was free to be and do…whatever. And as I closed my eyes my mind began racing with the dreams I had thought would never come true. The blackness almost overtook me but Wallace spoke up in a whisper.  
“You know its quite strange don’t you think?”  
“What is?”  
“This boy…Abelino just appearing near Snowpoint City right around where Cynthia told us she knew the attackers had run off to. He has no shoes, no jacket, he’s seriously bleeding from his right arm, and not to mention the Mimikyu. I know we promised to help Cynthia but this all seems unnerving.”  
“I’m with you on that. Team Plasma in Unova were obvious power seeking maniacs and even Team Galactic here in Sinnoh were as typical villain as you can get. But whoever this new group operating here is, their motives are seriously twisted.”  
“Attacking the Ice Gym in Snowpoint and seriously injuring the gym leader for her vocal support of queer trainers, the missing children from the Sunlit Hills Adoption Home in Jubilife City, and now Abelino appearing out of the blue? I know you think I’m pretty ditzy but I’m scared for us. Maybe we chewed on more than we can handle.”  
“I trust your instincts Wallace, but we can’t sit on the sidelines for another apocalyptic scenario. There isn’t any kid to save us this time and even if there were, we’ve got to let them live their own life and journey on a path they choose to go on.”  
“Cynthia still tried to contact Lucas and Dawn. The only reason we’re even here is because she has no idea where they could be. They just fell off the face of the planet.”  
“And now it's up to us to figure this out.”  
“I suppose it is.”  
Lucas and Dawn? Those names felt familiar to me. I don’t quite remember where I’d heard them before, but a sudden warmth blossomed in my chest.  
“Who are Lucas and Dawn?”  
Wallace jumped a bit at the sound of my voice and then shook his head.  
“I thought you were asleep!”  
“Well, you guys started talking and I just got curious. Sorry for eavesdropping on something not meant for me.”  
“No. It's fine you just…startled me.”  
“Who are Lucas and Dawn?”  
“World renown Pokémon trainers from Sinnoh. The two of them were responsible for taking down Team Galactic, an organization who was lead by a man named Cyrus who wanted to create a new universe by destroying ours.”  
Grimsley’s voice broke my questioning and I glanced up at him.  
“They must be very important.”  
“They are. Cynthia was hoping to ask for their help with something urgent but she got stuck with our handsome faces instead.”  
“Right! Although, I don’t know if you can call old man Maxie handsome.”  
Wallace broke into hysterical giggles as Grimsley glared over at him, but I had gotten a bit distracted.  
We had reached the edge of the forest and as we stood on a hill we were overlooking a snow-dusted city nestled inside a small bay. The bright lights of hundreds of houses sparkled in the dark like warm, inviting fires as smoke billowed from chimneys. Streetlights of all sorts of bright colors lit up the sidewalks that at the moment were desolate and empty save for a few people walking around. There seemed to be a glow enveloping the whole city and my eyes couldn’t stop darting around to look at the cobblestone road and sidewalks and I tried to peek through the glistening glass storefronts to see what was inside the stores. I had never seen so much life before even if there was no one around. It was empty at the moment of people, but it didn’t feel empty at all.  
We had already made our way down and started to pass stores as we went along to somewhere I wasn’t sure of. Grimsley and Wallace knew where they were going though so I didn’t worry much about that. We passed Chimchar’s Chimney Bakery and inside were rows and baskets full of wonderful looking treats, Mismagius Marvels which looked to be a bookstore, and finally reached a market square where a string of colored lights was tied around a central post. Banners depicting the forms of Pokémon were hung about and they managed to cast shadows on the soft snow even with just the small illumination of the lights. I just wanted to sit a moment and bask in it.  
Before I knew it though, still in the square, we reached a door to an apartment and Wallace used keys to push the door open. We stepped in and I was greeted by so many colors I had to blink a bit in order to clear my vision. The walls were painted a light orange and white lights, similar to the ones strung outside, lined the windows with white, lacey curtains. The floor was a deep, rich brown and made of wooden floorboards with two orange couches circling a large, fuzzy grey carpet. On top of the carpet was a coffee table and in front of it, a shelf was set up with a holocaster for people to view. To the right of that was a kitchen only separated by a marble island and I could see a tall man in a red sweater with deep red hair busily moving around the brown colored appliances.  
“We’re home old man!”  
“About time! I honestly don’t know what the two of you were expecting to find at such a late hour. It’s only logical to rest and wait for daylight before we set ourselves to the task ahead.”  
“Yeah well…turns out it was a good thing that we didn’t follow logic.”  
“What on earth do you mean by th…”  
The man turned around and I finally got a good look at him.  
Besides his furrowed eyebrows and gaping mouth staring at me in confusion, I noticed the angular black glasses he wore over his eyes. In his thin pale fingers, he held a steaming mug that read: My Man Makes My Heart Ripple with a really buff man’s flexing image on it.  
Wallace beside me began to make choking sounds as the man made his way around the counter towards us. He had on baggy red sweatpants with blue anchors running along the sides and fuzzy socks that were red as well. The man’s face was still ruled over by shock.  
“Who…who…whose kid is this? Did you guys kidnap someone’s child?”  
“No! Who do you think we are? We found the kid wandering the forest.”  
“And you think it’s fine to just pick up wandering teenagers from the forest?”  
“I’m twenty.”  
The man stopped waving his hands frantically around and he leaned in it to look at me. Grimsley cleared his throat and the man looked up at him.  
“Maxie this is Abelino. Abelino this is Maxie.”  
“Hi.”  
Maxie looked a little flustered at my hello and pretended to fix his glasses before stepping closer again.  
“What on earth happened to you? You’ve got bruises almost everywhere I can see!”  
“I’d…rather talk about it later…maybe.”  
Maxie glanced at me again and his face softened slightly as he silently nodded his head. He pointed over to the couch motioned us over there.  
“Lay him down there will you. I’ll go get the medical kit from the closet. The Pokémon Center is closed at the moment and I’d rather not bother Nurse Joy if we can. No need to alarm anyone just yet.”  
Grimsley followed the order and laid me down on the couch with Mimikyu hopping over onto the coffee table to look over me. Grimsley left to the kitchen and Wallace disappeared as well before reappearing with some very large, fluffy looking pink blankets. He set them down beside me before sitting down on the couch.  
“You must’ve been through quite a lot.”  
I sat up in order to face him properly and nodded my head. He gave me a small smile.  
“I wasn’t really expecting to walk out into a snowy forest. I wasn’t really expecting anything, to be honest. The day felt like any other until just moments ago.”  
“What happened? I know you just told Maxie you’d rather not share, but we really would like to help.”  
I bit on my lip and just then Grimsley returned with a pink mug. He handed it to me and I gratefully accepted it with a small thanks. I took a sip and realized it was hot chocolate and quickly took another small sip. I stared at the swirls inside the mug and gripped the mug close to me. I looked up and found the two staring expectantly at me with Maxie making his way back with a small red box.  
They’re being so nice. I should explain myself.  
“My…mother was the one who…did this to me.”  
There was a moment of agonizing silence as I stared at the swirling whirls of my hot chocolate.  
“Your mother? Why would she do something like this?”  
“She got angry at me. I was trying to power my holocaster and went into her room to look. I found an old metal box and opened it to find…some documents and photos I didn’t…remember existing and this one,” I tapped the box in my hand, “is where I put all the stuff I ended up finding. But when my mom found me, she got really angry because I found out something she was keeping a secret.”  
I felt a sharp sting on my arm and looked over to see Maxie washing the open, square wound where the CS device had been. He had a needle and thread beside him as well.  
“I found out that I was…part of her project to develop a chemical. AMR was supposed to help cure me of a terrible disease my mom said I had that prevented me from going outside. It was a…lie though and the chemical was really supposed to damage specific memory receptors in my brain but she hadn’t really perfected it. She needed to keep me locked up in the house I was in to continue perfecting it for someone called The Father.”  
“The Father?”  
“Yeah. It seemed like she was creating the chemical for him to use, but he wasn’t satisfied with the effects AMR were having on me and asked my mother to perfect it before they began mass use.”  
“Did you ever see this Father?”  
“No. And if I ever did, the AMR treatment most likely damaged my memory so much that I’m missing large parts of my past.”  
“Why would she use the AMR chemical on you?”  
I tried to calm my racing heart and take a minute to collect myself. Reliving the bombshells of the day just reopened the wounds that I couldn’t see. I pried my eyes away from the swirling comfort of the chocolate and looked at all three of them before speaking.  
“I…apparently liked men and my mother thought that I…that I was disgusting and began the development of AMR. I’m not sure when The Father became interested in her work, but I brought the documents I found with me.”  
“Grimsley, Maxie, this is the same person who left that verse scrawled along the Snowpoint City Gym after attacking Candice! The same one! It can’t be a coincidence.”  
I scrunched my eyebrows.  
“You’ve heard of him before?”  
Wallace gave me a nod.  
“Three weeks ago the gym leader of this city, Candice, was attacked after defending queer trainers who were there to challenge her in order to progress through the Pokémon League and she herself was attacked by the group responsible for the hate violence. They did it late in the night when no one was expecting it and after they almost beat her to death they left a verse scrawled along the gym something about the approaching saving grace of The Father. Cynthia…”  
“Cynthia!”  
“You know her?”  
“No…but I was watching her match on the holocaster when a huge explosion interrupted the match and I went to my mother’s room to search for an electric starter when the battery on it died.”  
“Maxie were you not watching the League Finals?”  
“I got a call from Archie and got distracted by his nonsense. I completely forgot to tune in to see it!”  
Maxie finished sewing closed my wound and rushed over to the holocaster. After flipping it on we were greeted to Emily Patterson’s face with a scrawl that read: No Place is Safe, Hate Group Targets the League Finals.  
“Good evening viewers. This is Emily Patterson coming to you live from the Sinnoh Public Broadcast Network in Jubilife City. Tragedy has struck once again as tonight the League Finals were interrupted by a series of explosive devices placed beneath the viewing stands that were intentionally placed there to deal the most casualties with the same group believed to be responsible for the attack on Gym Leader Candice of Snowpoint City claiming responsibility in a video broadcast that was displayed moments ago. Over a thousand are critically injured and were rushed to Pokémon Centers around the League and until now a hundred deaths have been confirmed.  
League Champion Lautaro released the following statement saying: It is with deep condolences that I greet my fellow Sinnohans in grieving the heinous attacks laid on fellow trainers and viewers alike. The group responsible for this attack were also the villains who only three weeks ago left Gym Leader Candice critically injured in Snowpoint City. Rest assured, the League will use its full force to investigate and find the perpetrators wherever they may be hiding. Until then, the ban on LGBTQ trainers remains in effect and strengthens to include a ban on public signs of affection, public mention of ones’ gender identity and sexual orientation, and temporary leave of jobs related to service and the public sector. I will also authorize the League to close Sinnoh’s borders until we can be certain that the danger presented by this group has been completely dealt with. Anyone within the region shall not be permitted to leave and all correspondence to and from the region will be screened by the League. Please remain calm and heed the League’s laws and regulations. They are being put into place for the safety of every trainer until we can resolve this threat with complete certainty. I thank you for your understanding.  
As you can see, current bans have been strengthened and new decrees have been put into motion in order to deal with this threat as swiftly as possible. Champion Lautaro was able to escape the stadium safely along with former Champion Cynthia. The two helped attendees escape the rubble and waited until League authorities arrived to assess the situation. The International Police have also sent two agents to aid in the League’s efforts to apprehend the group responsible.”  
“Have you two heard anything from Cynthia? I haven’t gotten any call through my xtransceiver.”  
“No! The entire walk here we didn’t get any calls.”  
“Then this doesn’t bode well at all.”  
Maxie began to pace again in front of the holocaster. His left hand was tapping lightly at the side of his glasses where I noticed a strange rainbow-hued gem embedded on the side.  
“It’s no use fretting over this now. It’s late and we have a guest in need at the moment. Cynthia is perfectly capable of handling herself for the moment.”  
As Grimsley spoke he stood and walked over to the back where I assumed the house's rooms were and came back with a…  
“An xtransceiver!”  
“You’ve seen them before?”  
“Well on the holocaster they’d play ads between matches and they were always promoting them. I never really saw a physical one though I know more or less how they work.”  
He handed over the xtransceiver. It had bright light peach streaks along all its sides and the screen glowed with a warm glow as it came to life. I used my left hand and caressed the sides gently a bit amazed to have one.  
“Now that things have really hit the fan you’re going to need to be able to keep in contact with us.”  
“You mean I’m staying with you guys?”  
Grimsley knelt down beside me and his blue eyes looked intently at my own.  
“Look kid, I’m sure you already can tell, but this mess is quickly going from bad to worse. We’re trying to piece everything together just like you and I know we didn’t really ask you, but we do need your help. Your mother was developing this chemical, AMR, for the leader of this hate group. Sinesensu and the League might be ignorant of this, but they won’t question Lautaro’s title as champion and the International Police was called on two organizations behalf. We can’t trust anyone but ourselves and your mother is surely using all her power to find you as well.”  
“But I’m not sure I’ll be helpful! I only just discovered all this myself and I still can’t really wrap my head around it. I’ve also had no training to become a trainer either. What if I’m just a huge liability?”  
“No one ever does! That’s the great thing about it. Everyone has to figure out who they are as a trainer as they go along and you’ll have some of the best trainers in the world right here to give you a hand.”  
He stood up and sent me a wink, Wallace gave a big smile with a thumbs up, and Maxie gave a small smirk with a nod. There was just so much warmth surrounding me that I felt like I was being overcome by it. Overcome with all this sound. Sound? What was that sound? It was so much that I began to tear up and nodded my head violently.  
“If you guys will have me; I’ll be happy to help.”  
“Good on you kiddo. What should our next move be then Maxie?”  
“I think it would do us good to head over to the Pokémon Center to check on Candice and ask her if she remembers any of the details regarding the attack on her and the gym. After that, we should head to Sunlit Hills Adoption Home in Jubilife City and figure out what happened to all those missing kids there. If I’m sure of anything, its that those disappearances are surely connected to everything somehow.”  
“You should get some rest Abelino. It's pretty late and you’ve been through quite a lot. We can give you the spare bedroom by Maxie’s.”  
All four of us moved away from the couches and began to go down the hall. To the left was a door and when it opened I was greeted to warm, light peach walls with a small window on the wall opposite the door. A small bed with light blue sheets was up against the wall to the right and a closet was open and empty on the left. Next to the bed was a small lamp in the shape of a Sunflora that turned on and flooded the room with a dull, orange glow. The floor was a shiny, brown wooden floorboard with a small circular carpet sitting at the foot of the bed.  
I turned and gave a huge hug to Wallace which had him step back in surprise before he returned my hug. My face was pressed into his sweater and for some reason, I could swear that I could smell the salt of the sea.  
“Thanks.”  
“Don’t mention it,” I let go and took a step back, “and we also have to get you a wardrobe because we can’t have you walking around Sinnoh like that!”  
Maxie gently moved Wallace aside and handed me a bundle of pajamas with a bunch of Pokémon printed all over it.  
“I found those in my closet and I think they should fit you fine. You can pick which one you want to wear tonight and keep the rest. I think you’d look adorable in the Piplup one, just a suggestion.”  
“Thank you.”  
“Now we’ll get out of your hair! We’ll wake you up in the morning when we’re ready to head out alright? Have a goodnight.”  
“Night.”  
With that, they gently closed the door and I turned around with a big smile to look over the room once again. We’d surely have to be on the constant move while we tried to figure out what was going on, but for now this really felt like a room, like something meant for someone to live in. It was nothing like the house before.  
I quickly changed into the Piplup pajamas and stored the rest in the closet before jumping onto the bed and rubbing my face into the soft mound of pillows. I just closed my eyes and let myself appreciate the feeling of it all.  
That isn’t strange, right? To feel the goodness from time to time. Let yourself realize you’re not as alone as you imagined yourself to be. I think that’s what I meant by sound. You get so used to never hearing anything, never hearing yourself in the thought of others that sometimes you wonder if you’re even…alive. It’s a silence. And when the warmth returns? When people smile at you and say I see you without even saying it? That’s the sound.  
I turned myself over to face the window and I could see the moon’s glowing face peeking up from the slanted rooftops of the city houses. Mimikyu’s face suddenly eclipsed my view and I jumped back a bit before sending him a smile. I scratch between his ears and he gave out his signature little scream. I got lost a bit in myself while I gave him pats.  
Was I really ready to do this? I know mother is still out there and she’ll surely be pissed with what I did to her. She’d no doubt want to hurt me for the things I ruined for her. And what of dad? She said dad had protected me “right up to the end.” Did she kill him? Did he die trying to protect me? Why couldn’t I remember? I know the AMR chemical is strong, but am I that weak that I can’t even remember my own father?  
My head began to ache again and I closed my eyes rubbing my forehead. Mimikyu slid near and tapped his head against mine and I pecked his head before sitting up cross-legged. I placed my treasure box in front of me and opened it up, picking up the photos that I had brought with me. I gave my mother’s beach day picture one last look before I tore it up and leaned over to find a trash bin where I tossed the pieces. The last two I held in my two hands bringing them up to look at. I couldn’t tear myself away from the sight of me on my dad’s shoulders. I had to be around 12 years old in that photo. It felt so recent, but there was still this distant distance between me and him. His eyes sparkled like shallow ponds as he turned his neck to look at me with this ridiculous smile. And I stuck my tongue out squinting my eyes while waving my hand in the air like a total idiot! A laugh bubbled up in my throat as I stared and stared.  
I spent this whole time thinking he hated me. I thought he had abandoned me. It just couldn’t be true. Even if I don’t remember him anymore, I can just feel it in this picture. The warmth.  
“How was my dad Mimikyu? Was he a really badass trainer?”  
Mimikyu tapped the photo with a dark tendril and let out a small scream, bouncing up and down on the bed. A small giggle left my lips and I shook my head.  
“Ok! Ok! Haha, that badass huh.”  
I placed the photos gently back into the box and touched the lid.  
“I’ll remember you soon. Promise.”  
I left the box on the nightstand with the lamp and flicked the light off as I pulled the covers to settle in for the night. I made some room and tapped the mattress so that Mimikyu would come snuggle in. Once we were both under the covers I pulled them over us and nuzzled in for the night. It was always so scary sleeping in my house before because my mother sometimes never even came home and the house’s already heavy silence was accompanied by this huge emptiness. I could never sleep well. But now, I don’t think that’d be a problem ever again.  
I closed my eyes and just listened to my breathing and Mimikyu’s gentle snores. It was a nice lullaby to nod off to. But just as I was losing myself to sleep, this one name kept echoing in my mind.  
Lucas.


	2. Episode 2: A Small Step Forward

_I was somewhere. There was a lazy breeze that rustled my hair and was chilly enough to have goose bumps crawl across my skin. I could smell pine needles. It was a sharp, fresh smell that cut through any other I could smell. I opened my eyes and was greeted to fluffy, white clouds that were swimming across the huge, blue sky. They were like small islands that moved and occasionally blocked the warm sunlight._

_I realized I was laying down on grass and quickly sat up. My eyebrow scrunched up in confusion as I was greeted to the sight of a small town with only a handful of houses. Only about six houses sat nestled in between the clearing of the pine forest and small patches of snow littered the ground and blanketed the pines. A small lake shimmered to the south and a path cut further to the north._

_It felt familiar._

_I stood up and began to walk towards the town when I was suddenly bumped into. I stumbled a bit forward before looking back to see…_

_“Me?”_

_I was there! Me, from the picture on my dad’s shoulders! My red hair was as unkempt and long as ever and I had on baby blue overalls with yellow boots._

_“I’m sorry mister. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”_

_“It’s fine. It’s fine.”_

_I nervously kneeled down to be eye level with him._

_“Would you mind telling me your name?”_

_“Abelino.”_

_It was me! But how was this even possible? Are these my memories? If they are, then how can I talk to my past self like this? Is it a dream and memory mixed together?_

_“Abelino! Abelino!”_

_I turned to the booming, thickly accented voice and my heart stopped. He was right there. Just like in the picture. His brown hair was a complete tousled mess and he had an endearingly unkempt beard. But his eyes, they twinkled with so much unsaid things in my direction. The sun showered over his dark skin in such a way that it looked like he was almost transparent and the sunlight was being trapped in his skin._

_I didn’t know when, but I started to run. I never thought I could run so fast in my life. I could hear the huge pounding of my feet as I pushed myself to cross the small dirt town road to the mailbox where he stood by waving. Tears began to bubble up into my eyes and I began to sob. Then he opened his arms wide with a huge grin. I launched myself towards him._

_But I fell right through. Instead of being wrapped up in his large arms, I found myself greeting the ground as I slammed my head on the dirt path and tumbled a bit with the speed of my run. I shook my head and sat up to look over and my heart couldn’t take it. There was younger me, snuggling into the arms of my father. He was nuzzling into the top of my red, messy tangle of hair. Through the curtained tears of my eyes, every ray of sunlight became twisted into a mirage of colors that drowned the scene in reds, violets, and blues. The harsh, cold colors cut across the warmness of the dream and seemed to wrap around my vision. My sobs kept falling out of my mouth like globs of water, the sound echoing in the silent scene like a ripple in a pond._

_“Pa I’m here, I’m here,” I whispered and then shouted._

_“Pa I’m here! I’M HERE!”_

_But none of my shouts could break through the dream. I was alone even in the broken and jangled scenes of my own lost memories. I didn’t belong here._

_“Caramelo, let’s go in yeah? I’ve got some empanadas waiting for you on the table!”_

_“Mango flavored?”_

_“Of course! If it don’t got mango…”_

_“Then it ain’t got business in my estomago!”_

_Little me and dad gave each other a high five. The slap bounced out away from them as I sat watching. I watched and watched. It felt kind of wrong like I didn’t deserve to see this, not yet. Not unless I remember everything._

_I remember how my mother talked about him. She used to say that he was a fickle man who could hardly ever commit to something that when it counted most you could only ever count on him to run. When my “illness” was discovered, she said his first instinct was to run. He ran around the house like a mad man saying he couldn’t handle it; he couldn’t handle me. She was so meticulous about the details as well. She described the way he spat out every word dripping with anger and fear while I hid behind her legs and how he even went as far as hitting her. And still she was the hero in her own imagination. She valiantly threw him out. She loved me—or at least that’s what she had said._

_But this was him. Her words and AMR couldn’t stop me from pushing myself to unbury and wash off the manipulation. I felt it in my bones. There was no way my father could hate me. The love I saw in his eyes even if it wasn’t for this me—the now they were so strong that time could not have touched them and tainted them._

_I picked myself up from the ground and rubbed away the tears quickly. I don’t know why I did that. This was only a memory after all. I shouldn’t wake up in a pool of my own tears, but just the action of dusting off the tears gave me some comfort. Some boost in strength._

_The two of them disappeared into a small house and I was left alone again._

_How was I supposed to wake up from this? Did I just have to sit around until Wallace, Grimsley, or Maxie woke me up? I looked around trying to find some sort of…exit I guess. How ridiculous does that sound. An exit to my mind? Come on Abelino. Just wake yourself up!_

_Just then I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around._

_He was a few inches taller than me. His eyes were a striking metallic grey and his hair was a short, bluish grey that shimmered a bit in the sunlight. His skin was really pale a lot paler than the tannish brown of my own. I titled my head in confusion as I looked over him and he remained silent as well. He had a dark blue coat on and a white scarf wrapped around his neck with dark jeans and brown winter boots._

_I knew him._

_“Do I know you?”_

_“Do I know you?”_

_I blushed like a sunset as I stared off at the ground. For some reason I was now hyper-aware of his proximity to me, the deep timber of his voice, and even his smell. He carried a rich minty scent like he had rolled in a huge pile of mint leaves. I kept looking at the ground and simply gave a hand motion for him to go ahead._

_“Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you, but I’m sure I’ve seen you someplace. Did you happen to live in Alola?”_

_I looked up and shook my head._

_“No…I think I’m from Sinnoh. At least, that’s what my mother told me.”_

_“Huh, then maybe I saw you while I was champion.”_

_“You were champion! Like Cynthia?”_

_“You know her?”_

_“Well, I haven’t met her, but I do know some of her friends. They were nice enough to help me out.”_

_“Help you out?”_

_“Yeah. I was in a bit of a…difficult spot.”_

_He didn’t respond right away and instead kept looking me up and down. I got even more fidgety than I had been before. Maxie had scrutinized me the same way, so why was this guy any different? Also, what the hell am I doing talking to this dream apparition!? He felt familiar and I couldn’t stop myself from looking him up and down as well. God, maybe my mom really kicked me hard in the head. I’m losing it!_

_“It doesn’t really matter though. You’re just some manifestation of my dream.”_

_“Your dream? This is my dream.”_

_“What? Of course, it isn’t. These are my memories.”_

_“I thought you said this was a dream.”_

_“It is.”_

_“Then, it can be anything it wants to be and it can just as easily be part of mine, don’t you think? You can’t really trust everything your eyes see.”_

_“Which is why I can’t trust you, don’t you think?”_

_He gave me a very quirky looking face. His lips pursed a bit and his left eyebrow scrunched up before he burst into a fit of laughs. I sent him a mean glare as I crossed my arms. He was laughing so hard that he was grasping his knees and squatting close to the ground. He waved a hand as he tried to catch his breath and stand._

_“There really wasn’t anything to laugh about.”_

_“Oh, ah—I’m sorry. It’s just…you’re pretty adorable when you’re mad.”_

_“Adorable?”_

_“Yeah. Adorable.”_

_“Go check your eyes.”_

_“My eyes work fine.”_

_“Well, you can’t trust them to see everything clearly, your words.”_

_“Right, right. You aren’t wrong. My eyes just can’t help wanting to believe in something they like.”_

_I was about to respond when I caught the next bicker on the tip of my tongue. What am I even saying or doing!?_

_“Who are you?”_

_His face broke into a huge smile as he stuck out his large hand. I reached out and he gripped my smaller hand with a lot of unnecessary strength. I squinted my eyes and he kept grinning like a fool._

_“Names Lucas!”_

_“Lucas?”_

_“Yeah, that’s me!”_

_“Lu—ah!”_

_There was a sudden pounding in my head just like back at home. It circled around my skull like it was echoing and I had to clutch my head. It wasn’t just me though, the entire place was shaking and creaking just as each pound racked my head. Lucas glanced around a bit worriedly as he placed a hand on my shoulder._

_“What’s going on? Are you okay?”_

_“My hea—d it…it hurts. I…might be waking up.”_

_The sun was suddenly snuffed out of the sky and we were shrouded in a sudden darkness that swallowed up all the scenery in a single instant. Just me and Lucas were left in a dark void._

_“What’s your name?”_

_“My…name?”_

_“Yeah. If this is a dream, I’d like to remember you somehow.”_

_The pounding was getting so much worse. I couldn’t even open my eyes anymore. I just kept my hands to my head and tried to muster the will to say it._

_“Abe--Abelino.”_

_“Abe…? Abelino!”_

“ABELINO!”

            “AHHH!”

            I shot up suddenly at the sound of my name and instantly regretted it. My head was still slightly pounding as I cracked my eyelids open to see Maxie staring down at me from above. I turned to the window and saw warm rays of sunlight cascading through.

            “Are you okay?”

            “I’m fine. I’ve just got a killer headache.”

            “Is it from your injuries?”

            “Maybe. It could also just be my brain trying to work normally again.”

            “Right, the AMR chemical. Are you really sure you’re fine?”

            “Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry. I’m sure the ache will pass.”

            Maxie nodded his head, but a concerned look lingered while he watched me.

            “It’s morning?”

            “It is morning. Remember we’ve got a lot to do today and Wallace insisted we head right out to get you a wardrobe which I unfortunately had to concur to him as well.”

            “Sorry.”

            “Oh no! I’m not annoyed with you. Wallace just lives for these distractions despite knowing what our job here is. He’s forced us to go shopping so many times in the five days we’ve been here I can’t even remember the count!”

            I let out a small laugh and Maxie rustled my hair a bit.

            “Besides, shopping with you should be pleasant. Apart from being fellow red heads, I can tell you’re bright and ready to get to it. Maybe you can replace Wallace as a Gym Leader someday.”

            “I heard my name! Did you want something Maxie?”

            Wallace’s hair popped into view from my open doorway and I saw Maxie roll his eye before turning around.

            “They should make privacy a virtue. Maybe then you’d at least bother trying to give it to people.”

            “Excuse me! Hey, Abelino wh…”

            Maxie walked over and slapped his hand over Wallace’s mouth as he looked back to me.

            “You should just wear what you had and I’ll let you borrow a pair of my shoes. Once we get to shopping, you can wear whatever outfit you prefer from the bunch we got out of the store.”

            And with that he walked out, pushing Wallace along with him closing the door.

            As my headache dulled my heart fluttered a bit as I touched my hair and a small smile spread across my face. _Yeah, fellow redheads!_ I tossed the sheets and bounced up from bed to get ready—the dream still fresh on my mind.

_Lucas was one of the important Pokémon Trainers Wallace and Grimsley mentioned Cynthia was trying to get in contact with but never could. How could I have seen him in a dream? One where it seemed everything was part of my memory. I knew him. I think. I’m sure. He had the same familiar warmth as the rest of the scenery inside the dream. If we ran into him, would he remember me from the dream? Was my mind just struggling to piece things together? AHHH I don’t know!_

So many questions and no immediate answers.

            I heard a small scream and turned back towards the bed. I stuck my head under the wrinkled sheets and was greeted to a small, cute pair of black eyes. I scratched his ears and pulled him out, raising him above me like you would a baby.

            “Hi there! You ready to do this?”

            Mimikyu let out a scream and hopped down onto my head snuggling up in my hair. It tickled just a little and I couldn’t help letting out some giggles.

            “Ok! Ok! Calm down Mimikyu. Let me put on my clothes first.”

            I grabbed him and placed him on the bed before throwing on my sweater and shorts, picking him up again in my hands, and heading out into the living room. Wallace and Grimsley were already there drinking hot chocolate, I’m guessing, from mugs. I walked over and sat down on one of the high chairs by the kitchen island and hopped up. Embarrassingly, it was a bit of a struggle admittedly to get up.

            “How’d you sleep?”

            I turned myself so I was facing Grimsley and Wallace on the chair.

            “I slept well. Thanks for asking Grimsley.”

            “That’s good news. We were worried you’d be unable to sleep since you’re pretty injured.”

            “I’m sore and still aching, I won’t lie, but it didn’t bother me in my sleep although…”

            “Although what?”

            “Here are socks and boots Abelino!”

            Maxie popped out from the hallway with boots and socks in hand right as I was opening my mouth to share the dream.

            “Maybe they should make silence a virtue. Maybe then you could try not interrupting people in the middle of conversations, Maxie.”

            Maxie turned and glared at Wallace. He didn’t respond and instead sat down in the high chair beside me.

            “What were you going to say kid?”

            “Oh, I’m sure it’s not a big deal but remember that Pokémon Trainer you mentioned before? The one Cynthia was trying to contact, Lucas?”

            “Yes.”

            “Well, I spoke to him in my dream.”

            “Your dream?”

            “Yeah, we didn’t speak long but it felt as if I had…known him. He felt familiar in a way? It's difficult to explain. At first, I thought it was simply memories since I also saw a younger me and…my father. But Lucas showed up towards the end even saying he thought it was his dream. I am not sure if it was merely that I went to sleep thinking of our conversations or if we really did have some past together, but it just hasn’t left my mind. It all seems strange.”

            “Hmm. Interesting.”

            I turned to Maxie who had decided to speak up.

            “I’ve heard of people with psychic abilities before but those powers are most times limited to things like telekinesis. In much rarer and fewer cases, there are individuals who’ve been known to read minds and communicate telepathically. Their powers are so great that they have a difficult time controlling themselves when they get overwhelmed by certain emotions or memories.”

            “Think the kid might be a psychic then?”

            “I don’t think so.”

            “Maybe the AMR blocked my memory of those abilities? The report I read did mention triggers that they were worried about ‘reminding’ me of things I had forgotten.”

            “That is a good idea for why you might not be showing them, but if your powers were truly so strong, then the minute the AMR chemical stopped damaging or blocking memory receptors your power would have flared to life. Abilities like that can’t be easily contained especially without training or help.

            I think the most likely reason for you two meeting in this dreamscape is that you had such a strong bond from somewhere in your past that as your mind begins to slowly heal and your memories return that the bond which was weakened will begin to reform. I am obviously no expert in the realm of dreams and the functions of the self, but that’s as far as I can wrap my mind around this. We should figure out if there is any professor or scientist whose research is focused on dreams and their powers.”

            I nodded my head and reached out for the boots and socks Maxie had brought me. I stretched out the long, knee-high socks over my legs and slipped on the red, leather boots as the three of them watched me silently. I blushed beet red.

            “You guys can, you know, talk while I do this.”

            “Right, sorry! Well now that you’ve got them on we can go.”

            I hopped down to the floor and made my way over to the front door. But as I waited there, I heard Wallace make really horrifying gagging noises as I turned to look at him. Grimsley looked a bit concerned and Maxie just looked in utter annoyance at the man beside him. Wallace was just keeled over and I titled my head in complete confusion.

            “I’m sorry. Your outfit is just atrocious especially with that tacky red. This shopping spree has to be a fashion emergency now. Don’t worry though! You’re totally cute we jus…OWWW!”

            I flinched at the _whack_ of Maxie’s hand as it landed on the back of Wallace’s head. Maxie pretended to fix his red and black coat with large **M** ’s on either side of the v opening along with his glasses as he walked by me to open the door.

            “If we’re done with the antics, then we have actual business we need to get on to.”

            “You four-eyed bastard! Why the hell did you do that for?”

            Maxie opened the door and looked back, his glasses glinting in the crisp sunlight.

            “Perhaps when you take the weight of the favor Cynthia has asked of us seriously and you reevaluate your own character, then you could be trusted and respected among the rest of us. But as it is, all you’ve done is look to yourself and complain the entire time we’ve been here about how this is all too much to ask of you and Grimsley. Cynthia turned to us because she thought we’d be selfless enough to take-on the worries of her people as fellow queer trainers, but clearly she’s misplaced her trust when it comes to you.

            If you want to go home and accept the deaths of those trainers so you can keep living comfortably under the same old same old, then by all means go ahead. I’d much rather have as an ally a 20-year-old man who’s fighting to regain his memory, than a grown man in his early forties who even now is indecisive on entering the fight

            Let’s go Abelino.”

            The entire room was silent and extremely cold. I turned to look at Wallace and his eyes were bright red, brimming with simmering tears as Grimsley held him and shared a cold look with Maxie. The tension was palpable and totally different from the one the three had shared the night before. _Perhaps the surprise of me had made them forget about the issues they had with each other. I had heard Wallace mentioning how they might be in over their heads when him and Grimsley were carrying me to Snowpoint City after all. Maxie seems pretty no-nonsense so I can see where indecision would annoy him in any form. There’s something in their history that I’m just missing_

“Maxie, that was totally uncalled for.”

            “It isn’t Grimsley. If you could stop kissing ass to him and be frank about committing yourselves to this, then I would stop. I know you take this very seriously yourself so it would be good if you could rub some of that off on him for once. You can start by going to the Pokémon Center and talking to Candice. Take the Jeep,” Maxie reached into his coat pocket and tossed out a pair of keys that Grimsley caught, “the Pokémon Center is in the eastern, lower bay part of the city. Abelino and I will go get him some clothes.”

            I was still sort of frozen in place, but Maxie pushed me along with a hand on my shoulder and he gently closed the front door. We were immediately greeted by the sound of things crashing onto the floor and loud sobs. I felt really bad and turned to look at the white door.

            “It’s no use going back there. Wallace needs a little tough love.”

            I looked over at the sound of Maxie’s tired sigh. He was rubbing his forehead as he walked down the cobblestone path and I followed close behind me. I was a bit scared now that it was day because we were now surrounded by tons of people walking alongside us with their Pokémon. I saw Aipoms, Froslass, Weavile, Empoleon, and many more I couldn’t recognize at a first glance. I was so busy trying to take it all in that I hadn’t noticed the odd stares I was managing to attract as people whispered to one another and pointed towards me. I suddenly felt really insecure and embarrassed about how I looked and rushed to walk alongside Maxie and try to hide myself behind him.

_Maybe Wallace had a point. The silence with the stares is really palatable. I should make some conversation._

            “Had you met Wallace, Grimsley, or Lucas before now?”

            “I’ve only ever heard of Lucas from Cynthia. I never personally met him and Cynthia hadn’t seen him for a while either. She only told me that he was pretty persistent and comedic, but that he could be calm, cool, and collected in the face of challenges.

            As for Grimsley and Wallace, I met the two separately during the Pokémon World Tournament years back in Unova. Wallace and Steven, the champion of the Hoenn Region where we’re from, were participating and Steven requested me to tag along for support. Of course, the tournament was delayed because Neo Team Plasma was on a full-fledged attack against the region and we were a bit panicked. Once the tournament was underway I saw Grimsley, who at the time was an Elite Four member of Unova, and had the chance to talk and get to know him. Wallace hasn’t always been like this. He helped us stop the wrath of Kyogre and Groudon back when I was the head of Team Magma and my husband was the leader of Team Aqua. We had foolishly in our craving for power unleashed the primal forms of those two legendary Pokémon and it took a team effort along with the bravery of a single, very dear trainer to save our region.”

            He nodded his head like he was agreeing with something he was seeing or thinking.

            “The trip to Unova might have opened his eyes to the fact that there are other evil entities out there that won’t reform like mine did. Organizations’ of people willing to hurt others to gain something. Add to that the fact that he’s now in a relationship and you get a whole mess of tangled wants and duties. I know he takes this seriously, but he has to accept that being a trainer is a dangerous thing and we have to be willing to put ourselves in harms way to save innocent people. There’s no place I’d rather be than with my love Archie, but him and I understand that it’s our duty to make sure these misfortunes don’t befall others. I guess we still feel guilty for having caused so much pain before.”

            He turned to me and gave me a small smile, his reddish, brown eyes sparkling a bit in the sun as the light caught onto the small tears I could see at the bottom of his eyes.

            “But that’s enough of me, we’re here at Clefairy’s Seamstress Boutique. I know it sounds incredibly garish and posh, but the store is huge! They have all sorts of clothing styles for you to try on.”

            He pulled open the glass door and I whispered a small thank you as I stepped in.

            _Maxie was incredibly brave and noble. He’s not trying to be mean or cruel just honest and he’s suffering in his own way. I’m sure Wallace will come around._

“WELCOME! WELCOME!”

            A cheery voice suddenly interrupted my thoughts as I walked into the warm air of the store. I followed the greetings and saw a small man smiling at me with such an intensity that it was kind of disturbing. He had on long, bubblegum pink dress pants that swallowed up his feet and a glimmering white shirt that was undone from the top with large sleeves he had rolled up to his elbow. His brown hair was light, shining under the bright white lights from the white ceiling. He walked over to us and I could hear loud clacks that, when I glanced down to his feet to look, seemed to be coming from some killer looking white high heels that he had on.

            “Can I help you with anything?”

            “We’re just here on the hunt for some clothing for m…”

            “Your son? Oh, how lovely! My heart is just warming up at the sight of you guys. Don’t worry! I can totally see the possibilities for him.”

            “Son? What?”

            The man walked over and suddenly thin fingers were squishing my cheeks over and over.

            “Your skin is soft. You’ve got nice facial features. Totally model material. Totally! I definitely have to personally oversee this transformation. Come with me! Daniel here, at your service.”

            “Oh, uh, thanks Daniel. You really don’t have to if its inconvenient.”

            “It’s not inconvenient at all! A new look really does wonders for the soul we just need to get something that really brings out all the youness that you’ve already got going on. Trust me. There’s nothing more attractive and fashion defying than just being and loving and having confidence in yourself. The clothes just amplify that! Follow me!”

            Daniel went walking off and Maxie and I just tagged along as we passed shelves, racks, and mannequins all dressed up in differing sorts of apparel. It was a bit jarring how crossing into one room radically changed the type of clothing we were surrounded by kind of like riding a fast moving car that blurred the passing scenery. Each room had some kind of theme attached to it as well whether it was seasonal or occasional.  It went from formal wear, to sports, to sleep wear, and on and on. Maxie was walking right alongside me and leaned in next to my shoulder.

            “Do you think I’m old?”

            “Ahhhhh, no?”

            “Somehow it hurts more that you had to think about the answer.”

            I shared an apologetic look before glancing around the rooms we were passing. We entered one that was more closed off and darker than the rest and I immediately stopped in my tracks. All the clothes in this section were light, bright versions of the basic and darker colors of the clothes within the stores. It was like someone dyed each piece of clothing in a fluffy, white cloud that distilled the fluffiness of each puff into the material of the clothes. If that made any sense. There weren’t any lights here in the room but warm, glowing fixtures on the ceiling that looked like small multicolored rocks hung around with strange swirly eyes and bright white mouths painted on them. A type of Pokémon I hadn’t seen before maybe?

            But I was particularly intrigued by a long, light blue coat that hung on the bottom of a shelf by the wall. I walked up to it to inspect it closer and noticed it had endearing black stitches running along the sleeves, the hem at the bottom, and the large rim of the hood. It was made of a darker, sky blue fabric everywhere, except along where the five pink stringed buttons were sewn that had a lighter baby blue underneath them and the same baby blue fabric was used on the sleeve cuffs, and the inner part of the hood had a black wooly fabric. Four pockets also adorned the front of the coat that looked like cute little cards tied with pink strings. _I really liked it._

            “That’s totally you! Of course, you’d gravitate towards the Galactic Pastels wardrobe.”

            “Galactic Pastels?”

            “Yup! These colors are imbued with the same wonder and awe that comes from looking up at the stars and realizing how wonderfully massive this world is. I can see these same colors just oozing out of your heart like crazy! Plus, it doesn’t hurt that you’ll look totally killer in this.”

            “You think so?”

            “Totally! Ah, this room is full of a real pure kind of wonder it reminds me of the days when I use to be a Galactic Grunt.”

            “You were a Galactic Grunt?”

            “Yeah! And let me tell you their uniform was totally not killer.”

            “Wow. Why did you leave them?”

            “Well, it was right at the summit of Mt. Coronet. I was fighting off this kid trainer who was trying to reach Leader Cyrus when I saw the things he was doing to the legendary Pokémon Palkia and Dialga. Something about their cries really struck something deep inside me that I hadn’t known was inside me before. When you’re such a small person and someone bigger than life tells you you’ll be part of something bigger than yourself, well, you tend to be caught up in it. They play off your sadness and anger until you start to believe in them without a doubt. After that, I decided that I’d try to make others see how larger than life they already are with fashion. You know what they say: Kill them with love. Strike fear in them with fashion.”

            “Did someone really say that?”

            “No. But it’s a nice sentiment, isn’t it?”

            “What are Dialga and Palkia?”

            “You don’t know?”

            “No, but I imagine they have to be very powerful if people would want to try and hurt them.”

            “Dialga rules over time and Palkia rules over space. The two Pokémon are important to the stability of our universe so when Leader Cyrus tried capturing them he unknowingly called out to a very sinister and ancient Pokémon Giratina.”

            “Giratina?”

            “Yes. A Pokémon that lives and rules over the Distortion world—a place that mirrors our own world and strange and twisted ways. When Giratina appeared, our world began to distort and lose form so Cynthia and a trainer named Lucas had to venture in to calm Giratina and defeat Leader Cyrus.”

            _Lucas? He calmed Giratina?_

            Daniel reached past me and picked up the hanger with the coat.

            “Ok. You’ll probably be wearing this coat constantly in a place as chilly as Sinnoh so we can use this as a basis to style around. Now let’s see…”

            Daniel began to weave in and out between all the racks of the room just muttering to himself over and over “no, no” as he brushed his fingers against different sweaters, jeans, and long sleeved shirts. At some moments he’d stop and clap his hands while grabbing a handful of things and continuing his move through the room. He also stopped at a lower shelf with boxes of shoes and grabbed two. He eventually turned to me with a whole stack of colorful items that nearly swallowed him that looked like a rainbow had spit them out and dumped them right into his hands.

            “Right! I think I’ve got all the wardrobe you’ll need.”

            “Yeah. All he needs.”

            I turned to Maxie and he was shaking his head with a smile. Daniel waved me over to a small curtain that was hidden in the dark, brown wall of the room and had a small glowing sign that read: FITTING ROOM.  He parted the curtain and went in, placing the clothes and boxes on a small bench before waving me in.

            “There you go! Go in and try on all the clothes I picked out. Whatever clothes you’re not really feeling, just toss them into the wicker basket by the mirror, but I think you’ll really love the shoes so don’t toss those, and whatever you do like just bring up to the counter at the front of the store. No hurries!”

            Daniel waved and pulled the curtain in place as he did so. I looked a little dauntingly at the pile of clothes and was about to pick up a white dress shirt when I heard a ringing.

            “Hey Abelino? You okay trying the clothes out on your own while I step out to take this call? Wallace and Grimsley are calling in.”

            “Go ahead! I’ll be fine don’t worry.”

            “Alright. See you up at the counter then.”

            With that and his fading steps, I turned back to the white dress shirt. Mimikyu dropped down and slipped around on the carpet as I peeled off my black sweater. I was going to pull on the dress shirt when I caught a look at my stomach in the mirror. I stepped up over to it.

            Black and purple bruise marks were blossoming all over my brown skin, even my cheeks, and when I tried touching it, pain rippled out from the center of it. Besides that, I turned to my side to inspect the small protruding belly that was visible in the mirror and poked it.

            I remember when my mother would force me to stand in the mirror sometimes while she berated me over and over about the way that I looked. Someone as clumsy and naïve like me couldn’t possibly hope to be a trainer. A trainer had to be logical, composed, respectable, and mature and to her I was none of the above. I knew she was just frustrated, maybe even lying but when you don’t have anyone to tell you otherwise when all you have is your quiet voice and the louder one—you can’t help but believe the louder one. At one point, I even tried finding a way to kill myself because I couldn’t handle being left alone with my mother’s voice ringing around my mind. But even when I thought it, I couldn’t do it.

            I was scared. I was scared I hadn’t lived enough, that I hadn’t done what I was meant to do. Maybe it was cowardly, but I am happy I didn’t follow through with it because now I was getting my chance to live.

I poked my belly again. It was a pretty cute belly, black and purple flowers and all. I nodded to myself and slipped the white shirt on. I had to admit it wasn’t half bad looking, but it felt like it was missing some element. I left the collar popped up and the final top button undone and as I looked over I caught sight of the perfect compliment to it. A pale, yellow, fuzzy sweater was tangled beneath the rest of the pile and I quickly yanked it out, pulling it over myself. I glanced at the mirror turning this way and that to get a good feel for how I looked before giving myself a thumbs up.

            I rummaged through the pile and found some tight fitting black jeans, some thin, pale red socks, and I opened the first shoe box to find black boots with pink laces and a red middle slit. I quickly dressed up, slipping the coat on as well, and took one more glance in the mirror.

            _I don’t look half bad actually._

            “What do you think Mimikyu? Do I look okay?”

            Mimikyu hopped up and gave a small scream and I quickly picked him up.

            “Wow, instant approval? There’s no way I can fail in this outfit now. Let’s go meet Daniel up at the front then.”

            I quickly placed Mimikyu on my head and picked up the pile of clothes which I honestly couldn’t see over. _I should’ve asked Daniel for a bag or something._

            I pulled the curtain and stepped out, sticking my head around the pile to try and see where I was going. I was doing pretty well. _Maybe I’m not as hopeless as I thought I’d be! Although, competently walking isn’t something to be particularly proud of. Or maybe it is?_

I had just lost track of my own thoughts for that single moment when I heard three voices ahead of me speaking.

            “Jessie, this is getting ridiculous. We’re broke beyond our minds for us to be wasting time here with your ego trips.”

            “Listen, James. Someone as beautiful as me needs clothes equally as beautiful to wear. Do you really want me to tarnish this flesh and sullen it with the crude garments of some second rate shop? Only the top quality could shield my adoring fans from the pure glow of all of this.”

            “If only it could shield the rest of us from your presence.”

            “Wobbuffett!”

            “James is right Jessie. We’ve been hopping around all these shops for hours now.”

            “Shut it Meowth! No one is asking for your input.”

            I was so focused on straining myself to hear their conversation that I forgot to pay attention to where I was going and before I knew it I had slammed into something hard, the pile of clothes dropping like a sack to the floor as I cried out a little at the stinging burn of my bruises. A groan reached my ear as I looked over to see a woman in a red coat lying on the floor right in front of me. She had striking magenta hair that was curled in neat waves that cascaded down to her shoulders. Just behind her stood a man with a short, lavender bob his green eyes peering down worriedly at the women. Beside her were two funny looking Pokémon one who was completely blue with a strange jagged mouth and the other, a cat Pokémon with a gold piece in the middle of its forehead.

            “Watch where you’re going!”

            “I’m so sorry ma’am.”

            The woman turned to look at me and immediately scrambled up from the ground making an unsettling gasp as she did turning to give the man a knowing look.

            “A twerp!?”

            “You must be mistaken Jessie it’s the first time we’ve seen this man.”

            “I am never mistaken! He’s got the twerp smell all over him.”

            “I hope this doesn’t end up like that time you tried attacking that ten-year old boy because he was wearing a cap similar to the original twerp.”

            “It was justified! After so many encounters, it becomes primal survival instinct.”

            I stood up and began to pick up the clothes I had dropped.

            “I’m sorry that I remind you of someone…unpleasant, but I really didn’t mean to run into you. I hope you’ll accept my apology.”

            The two turned to look at me again and Jessie looked me over, her eyes suddenly sparkling with an almost blinding light. She rushed over and began to pile up the clothes into my hand as swiftly as her hands would let her.

            “Ah my, my I am so sorry for interrupting your shopping. For a crowd of nobody’s like us to have disturbed you on your day off, haha, you’ll have to pardon us.”

            “Jessie what are you…”

            She flew back and pulled the ear of the man as he grunted in pain. She pulled his head down to her mouth and began to whisper, I guess, but I could hear them pretty clearly.

            “Look at the way this man is dressed James. He is a total pop idol or at the very least rich beyond our wildest imagination! He could be my ticket to fame just imagine the money we’ll make once he feels indebted to our kindness. He’ll offer me a record deal and the chance to tour alongside him, OMG, my childhood dreams will totally come true!”

            James gave her a lopsided frown as his body just sagged in submission. She let go of his ear and flew back to my side to begin piling up the clothes in my outstretched hands. _I had to admit my face was probably in agreement with what James was feeling at the moment. Aside from that, a pop idol? What’s an idol? Is it bad that I looked like one? Were these people dangerous? Maybe a part of Sinesensu, the League, or the International Police?_

“I’m sorry for the rudeness of James over there. You can’t really trust imbeciles like him, but I’m sure you’re no stranger to fools tripping over themselves just to impress you as well.”

            “Ah, yeah, you could say…that.”

            “Don’t worry twerp. You can be honest with her and just kick her to the curb.”

            I turned and my eyes widen as I tried to shake my head to make sure I wasn’t just hearing a voice come from that cat Pokémon. I kneeled down and focused my entire attention on him, but before he could talk to me some more I saw a high heeled foot fly past me and land right in his face. The poor thing went flying straight into a rack of clothing with a loud thump.

            “Don’t listen to Meowth dear. He’s obviously lost his manners despite my training.”

            “That Pokémon could talk! Where’d he learn to do that?”

            “It’s a long story and frankly, you shouldn’t really waste your time on a low life like him.”

            “Wow, that’s a low blow Jess…”

            I saw her twirl around so fast that I almost didn’t catch the horrifying image of her heel slamming into James’s face. His body went flying into the same rack of clothes Meowth had flown into. Jessie turned back to me with a sickly sweet smile as she laughed and waved nonchalantly.

            I stood and gave her a very weak smile as I started walking past the small quartet.

            “Right. I should get going I have a friend waiting for me at the front of the store. Thank you for helping me pick up the clothes. I really appreciated it.”

            With that, I quickly sped walk right up to the counter and plopped down the clothes. Daniel was there with a huge smile as he began swiping the tags of the items through a small scanner.

            “You look marvelous! God, my eye is such a talent isn’t it.”

            “It really is! I never would have imagined I could ever look like this. My mother always said I was passably average.”

            “Well, your mother is insane and she also sucks.”

            “Yeah, she really did suck didn’t she.”

            A bit of sadness washed over me in that instant as I began to think about her again. I had the habit of dressing up even if I was never going anywhere and my mom one night made an offhand remark about how there wasn’t any point in it and, besides, there wasn’t really anything to look at. I spent so much time after that looking and looking into the mirror, searching and searching for that thing she claimed I was missing and I realize now she was just lying in the hopes that I ended up believing so much in how ugly she made me feel, that I’d just imagine the flaw. I felt her presence in the mirror in the fitting room when I saw my belly and bruises. She was somewhere behind those bruises, her fingers tapping and tapping at the hill of my belly and I could see her shaking her head in disappointment.

            But she wasn’t here now.

            “Thankfully, I’m on my own now with some really nice company.”

            “That’s totally great! Your friend, Maxie, left his card here for me to swipe. He went out to walk a bit while he took his call and told me to tell you to meet him at the square just back up the road. I’ve already rung up the purchase so here you go!”

            He handed me the card and a small piece of paper that he slipped into the bag of clothing.

            “There’s the receipt for your friend and I also threw in a discount because a customer as lovely as you totally deserves it!”

             I grabbed the card, slipping it into one of my coat pockets, and gave him a huge smile.

            “That was incredibly nice of you. Thanks for being so friendly to me.”

            “Don’t mention it! Now, get along now or you’ll lag behind your friend.”

            I waved to him before stepping out into the cobblestone street again. It was crisp and cold, but the sun was shining brightly up in the blue sky and the air somehow felt different as well like I was caring the essence of the store along with me as well. It seemed to permeate me and the air with so much warmth that I couldn’t help but smile. It might not seem a big deal to other people, but even these clothes helped me feel like a new me. I’m sure there’s many things that can’t remember and still more thing I never learned to begin with thanks to my mother, but this…

            _This is my step forward._

            I took one deep breath and put my right foot forward starting to walk back up the road. There were tons of people now rushing past one another, their warm breath swirling up into the air as clouds before melting away. It felt so alive. I was being swept under waves of chatter and laughter and my ears were trying to follow every thread of sound to see what was at the other end. A boy crying at the window of a toy store, two girls giggling as they stared at a group of teenage boys, a trainer lecturing a guilty looking rock Pokémon by a broken metal bench. It all put a huge smile on my face.

            I reached the circular opening of the square and glanced around to try and find where Maxie could be. _He can’t be too hard to find. He is a fellow redhead and I’m pretty sure we’re like a rare breed._ I had to stretch on my tiptoes to see over the large crowd of people but I managed to spot the top of red hair somewhere in the middle, where the benches and light poles were set up. I was about to make my way over there when someone slammed into my right side making my entire body burn with a dull ache as I tipped right and was falling to the ground as I quickly grabbed Mimikyu from my head and clutched him to my chest, but just as I was flailing around, a pair of arms caught me. The bag in my hand jerked violently to a halt and I just stayed still panting heavily, closing my eyes to calm myself.

            “Thank…”

            I turned to thank the person who caught me only to be greeted with the green eyes of James from Daniel’s store. I gave a weak smile.

            “Thank you.”

            “Oh don’t mention it. You’re lucky a dashing gentleman like myself was here to catch you before you fell.”

            “Yeah. Aren’t I lucky.”

            He pulled me up with him and I stepped a bit away before looking directly at him. He was pretty tall, but then again, I wasn’t very tall to begin with. He was sending a pretty big smile my way and I felt kinda bad for sounding so obviously rude. _It’s not fair to be so strangely rude to the four, especially after two of them helped me. Sure they’re kinda weird, but didn’t my mother make me feel bad for being “weird” too?_ I adjusted my glasses on the bridge of my nose and gave him a big big smile.

            “I’m sorry. I’ve been speaking with nothing but a rude attitude since you guys popped up. It wasn’t my intention to be like that. I’m awfully grateful for the two saves today.”

            “Don’t worry. I’m used to worse from Jessie.”

            “That doesn’t make it any better. I’m starting over you could say and that isn’t a very good vibe to send off into the world. Thank you again.”

            “Starting over?”

            James titled his head in confusion and I nodded my head.

            “Yeah. I had a falling out with…family. My mother, specifically. Now I’m trying to start again without her and I’m learning the ropes as I go. Thankfully, I made a few new friends who took me in under their wings.”

            “Wow! I totally get that. I had a falling out with my own parents.”

            “You did? How was that for you?”

            “It hurt, I won’t lie. You grow up expecting your parents to support you in your dreams and understand what it is you want to do with your life, but my parents had other plans for me. They wanted me to marry into this other family and I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. I ended up running away which might be cowardly, but I don’t regret it.”

            “No! It’s totally not cowardly! I think its awfully brave to go against your parents. I wish I had gone against my mother much sooner but I didn’t really believe I had it in me to do such a thing.”

            “Well, I guess that makes two parental failures!”

            “Yeah, yeah it does.”

            He sent me a warm smile again and I returned it gladly.

            _I really was so wrong about them. I’m awful._

Mimikyu gave a small scream and James turned to look at him for the first time and his entire body froze. A look of horror cast itself all the way down his face as he began to visibly shake and I began to worry a bit. Mimikyu kept giving off happy cries that attracted the attention of people who began to point and pull out phones to snap pictures of us. The attention was a little nerve-racking.

            “Calm down Mimikyu. I know you’re happy too.”

            I moved close to James but he sort of just inched further back.

            “Are you okay?”

            “Yeah…yeah totally. Just…why do you have a Mimikyu with you?”

            “He’s my partner! He was my father’s Pokémon.”

            “Oh, oh what a relief.”

            James returned to his normal composure and let out a long sigh.

            “Jessie and I had a dealing with a particularly nasty Mimikyu in Alola so the trauma is still lingering.”

            “Was it really that bad?”

            “Oh yeah. It hated us with its guts and it always went against us whenever we pushed it to fight alongside us. Not to mention it almost killed Meowth the first time we met it.”

            “Oh God, I’m sorry. It sounds like a terrible experience.”

            “Ah, don’t fret. I’m just glad we’re free of it.”

            I nodded my head and reminded myself that I had to find Maxie.

“Thank you again for the save. I should get going now. My friend…”

            I was raising my hand to wave goodbye when the ground began to tremble violently and the streetlight poles began to clank and sway as well. The people around me began to panic and scattered about trying to move away from the square, but most of them just ended up tripping and falling on top of one another. Still, they rushed in droves as the trembling strengthened. I tried to stay standing, but eventually just landed on my ass trying to sit up as my teeth chattered against one another. My vision was blurred by the shaking and in the panicked crowd I couldn’t really make out anything. I had no idea where James was and I was fearful of Maxie who, if he was further in the square, was stuck, pinned down over there by the tremors.

            Just as suddenly as the tremor came though, it stopped. I shook my head to clear up my vision and I glanced around to see people with similarly confused looks. I turned to look, but James had just vanished from where I knew he had been standing and I stood up to look around some more. People were getting up and rushing away, but I could see through most of the square since people were still dazed on the ground. That’s when I saw Maxie fixing his glasses a bit away from me and immediately began rushing forward to him. Right as I was going to reach him, a strange sound began to ring out around the square and began to get louder and louder before a large, red truck began to barrel its way into the square. People dived out of its swerving path as it came blasting towards me! I only had a second to dive myself out of the way and tumble off back in the direction I came as the truck came skidding to a stop between Maxie and I. The air smelled like burned tires as I stood up with Mimikyu in my arms.

            The truck was just a completely solid red color with tinted windows. The engine was still humming when the back began to fold out into a black colored platform and speakers popped up on the furthest left and right of the floor. Three mic stands slid up from the center and I titled my head in deep fear and confusion. _What was going on?_

The speakers began to screech with a jittering sound and I had to cover my ears at the intense blaring that started the tremors again as well. Screams began to sound off along with the swelling sound. I collapsed on the floor again and pushed my head up to look at the makeshift stage and my eyes widened. _Them!_

Jessie and James were standing next to the mic stands with black, sparkling suits that had small red gems glimmering around the neckline and waistline with large golden shoulder pads. They had solid white shoes with similar red studded gems and a white and red patterned sash across their left shoulders. A single red **R** pin was pinned on the left side of their suits. Meowth was also beside them in a similar outfit, but those two had a wicked grin across their faces.

            “Hello twerp! Welcome to the show.”

            “Are you in love with our outfits? We got them at that Clefairy store. Doesn’t the red match my lips so well!”

            “Who…the hell are…you guys. You with…Sinesensu?”

            “Hah, yeah right. We’re part of a more formidable organization. Take it away Jessie!”

            “With pleasure James.”

            The speakers blasted out a garbled mess of electric guitars that echoed through the square and knocked over anyone who had managed to stay standing.

            _Prepare for trouble!_

_And make it double._

_To protect the world from devastation._

_To unite all peoples within our nation._

_To denounce the evils of truth and love._

_To extend our reach to the stars above._

_Jessie!_

_James._

_Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!_

_Surrender now or prepare to fight._

_Meowth! That’s right!_

The microphones made screeching sounds of pain as the trio twirled around on stage like they had just sealed the deal with their little performance. The speakers were still going off and until those were dealt with I doubt anyone would be able to stop them.

            “Did you enjoy our performance twerp?”

            “What are you guys getting at? Why are you doing this?”

            “Weren’t you listening just now!? We’re here to fight! But you heard our motto through the lips of my beautiful mouth, which obviously enhanced the sheer terror of hearing the name Team Rocket so I’ll forgive you. The fear has confused you a bit.”

            “Until now I didn’t even know who the three of you were.”

            Jessie’s face colored red at this and she pulled the mic to her lips.

            “Well then if you’re not satisfied with this maybe we should do a little encore.”

            “Jessie! I thought we were just going to snatch the twerp and get out of here?”

            “Shut it! I won’t budge until this brat can experience the full extent of my vocal capabilities. My pride demands it! Turn it up Wobbufett!”

            The speakers hissed as the blue Pokémon raised the volume and I had to clutch my ears even harder to block the sound. _I had to stop them. I had to stop them. Come on, think._ I looked down at Mimikyu and was surprised to see him unaffected by the noise. I looked back over to the stage and an idea immediately flew to my head.

            “Mimikyu. Please, go under the stage and use Shadow Ball to blast out the speakers from below. Go! Make sure to keep yourself hidden between the people around the square.”

            Mimikyu nodded its head and slid away from my arms as I turned to look back at Team Rocket before me. They were…

_Fame is for those with eyes_

_that can glimmer and outshine!_

_We can’t help but always be misunderstood_

_since genius is always in history so overlooked,_

_but here we are to open your eyes._

_Look to the stars’ cause were blasting away,_

_so far to extend our accolades to the infinite and beyond!_

_Let our names rain fear like the drops from the heavens_

_and soak into the bones until you won’t forget._

_Team Rocket is the right hand of the universe_

_and the deciders of your fate!_

I can’t believe what I just heard. I take it back. They really are awful. These four were definitely not part of Sinesensu in the slightest.

            “Team Rocket? Well, what the hell do you want?”

            “Great question. Here’s the simple answer: money!”

            “Money?”

            “You’re obviously a very loaded twerp who naively pranced off after you had a fight with your rich mommy. We’re going to hold you for ransom and get loaded off you and your idol career. Your mother will have to listen to our demands and you will too—unless you want everyone here to suffer for you?”

            The speakers screeched out again and people flinched back. I had to bite my lip to calm my nerves. _I know I already went up against my mother and she turned out to be cruel, evil, and her own piece of work. But these three were also strangers, strangers out to get me based off some stupid fantasy they had managed to build inside their head about who I was! My mom wouldn’t pay some ransom for me. The more likely event would be her showing up and obliterating everyone here, including Team Rocket, before she dragged me back with her. I hope Mimikyu has made it to the stage by now. I can’t see him anymore…_

            “Come on twerp we haven’t got all day.”

            “Fine. If you promise to leave everyone here alone, then I’ll come along willingly.”

            “Oh, we pinky pinky swear! Now, Meowth fetch him for us.”

            “With pleasure.”

            Meowth pulled out a large red button that he quickly pressed and before I knew it, a large mechanical claw shot out from the center of the stage and caught me. The cool metal pressed tight against my waist and pulled me so quickly my head spun as I found myself trapped on stage with Team Rocket, suspended up in the air between the three.

            “Jessie, isn’t it strange that we haven’t lost yet?”

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean the original twerp would have won with the stroke of luck and we’d be halfway to Unova by now. I don’t trust this.”

            “Maybe the universe has been so moved by my performance that we’ve touched luck with our talent!”

            “I highly doubt it Jess.”

            “Don’t ruin this moment for me James!”

            For a moment, they stopped using the speaker device while they bickered and people began to rush out of the square and I tried to find Maxie again. I saw him stand and turn his head over. When he saw me, his face began to burn bright red as he stormed his way over and the wind gently pulled at his coat.

            “What are you fools attempting to do pulling off this stunt?”

            His voice cut sharply with its steely tone through their bickering long enough to have the two turn towards Maxie. When they saw him, their eyes widened in recognition before a smirk spread over their face. Jessie walked over to the edge of the stage with a strut and titled her head slightly down to look at him.

            “Well, well if it isn’t old Maxie from Team Magma. What business is it what we are and aren’t doing, huh? This has nothing to do with you.”

            “To the contrary, this has everything to do with me. Now, we can avoid any unpleasantness if you let Abelino go.”

            “You know the twerp? He’s with you?”

            “Yes he is and I would advise you not to cross me with your annoying presence even more than you already have.”

            “Look old man, you aren’t exactly in any position to be trading insults with us especially not after you were turned soft by a twerp of your own. Didn’t you disband your team after your little worldly exploits failed?”

            “If I recall correctly, was Team Rocket not disbanded some time ago after your boss was beaten by his own ‘ _twerp?’_ I wouldn’t be flaunting that name around if I were you.”

            Jessie clutched her mic with a tight grip and the tips of her ears began to burn red as she turned and snatched the red button from Meowth’s paws. She twisted it and I felt a strange surge and warmth from the metal before I felt my entire body seize up as electricity sparked and arced all around my body. I let out a groan as I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist at the sudden and sharp pain.

            “Like I said. You’ve seemed to misjudge your position. Now listen here. You will tell this twerp idol’s mother that if she wants him back safely, she can wire us the money we want directly to an account we’ve set up and if she doesn’t…well.”

            “Idol?”

            The electricity spiked up in intensity and I couldn’t keep myself from letting out a small cry as I tried to wriggle out of the devices grasp. Maxie’s face was overcome with panic and he kept fixing and fidgeting with his glasses before he pushed them up at the bridge and nodded his head. His glasses glinted in the sunlight.

            “Very well. I understand. Stop this at once and I’ll have a word with his mother on his part.”

            Jessie turned the button back and the electricity stopped. I had to take a moment to breathe and my body sagged a bit as I tried to recover. _I wonder how Maxie will pull off this lie. Mimikyu had to hurry!_

Maxie fiddled with his xtransceiver and kept fiddling with it in confusion while Jessie looked on clearly irked. She tapped her heeled foot impatiently as Maxie continuously struggled with the device before she finally lost her patience.

            “Do you not know how to use one of those things?”

            “I do. I just am having a bit of trouble trying to get it to work with me. You wouldn’t mind lending me a hand would you?”

            “You’re not fooling anyone with that trick old man. You think we’d believe that a scientist like yourself wouldn’t figure out how to use something as simple as an xtranceiver? I wasn’t born yesterday.”

            “Oh, so you’re saying I’m too much of genius for that?”

            Jessie’s face turned red and she raised the button that she was gripping up.

            “That’s it! We warned you that you weren’t on the right end of things and you still tried to make fools of us. You’re going to realize how wrong it was for you to mess with Te…”

            Suddenly, a large shadow ball burst from underneath the left speaker of the stage and the explosion rocked the small stage. Bits of metal came flying out and bouncing like pebbles on fire. Jessie turned around in shock and moved over to the right so that she was right below where I was hanging on the metal claw. I stretched my legs out and caught her neck in between my legs, trying to force the breath out of her. Her hand came flying up as she slapped my thighs and stomach which stung like hell as they hurt my already sore skin.

            “Let go of me twerp! What are you even trying to do?”

            “Trying to get you to pass out.”

             Before she could respond, another shadow ball burst through the last speaker and this explosion was far more powerful. The bits of metal came zipping past and thumping across the stage with a skip in their bounce and Jessie and I barely by luck didn’t get hit by one yet. She continued to hit me trying to weaken or beat me enough that I’d let go of her.

            “James! Meowth! Wobbufett! You idiots help me!”

            The two of them heard and Jessie and began to run over to where we were fighting.

            “I won’t tell you again let go.”

            “Then let _me_ go.”

            “Like hell I would! You’re our ticket out of poverty twerp.”

            “Poverty?”

            “What do you think we're living on without an organization backing us up? Just what we make stealing Pokémon from trainers and the money we steal from those who have it. Just the crumbs of others dreams are what keep us going.”

            I was a bit taken aback by that small revelation. I hated to say it tugged at my heart a bit to imagine how much they’d suffered alone. Daniel had said that Team Galactic had made him feel larger than life after feeling so small before. It might’ve been the only semblance of home and family people who felt lost and alone got—a part of the appeal that pulled them in. I imagine that Team Rocket was the same for these guys and when the team was disbanded that they lost everything they thought they had. Clearly, it was hard for them to move on especially when everyone ridiculed them although that obviously didn’t excuse the crimes they have committed.

            I let go of her and began to reflect on myself.

            Wasn’t I just the same? I was trapped inside what was supposed to be a home that instead turned out to be an elaborate lie that slipped so casually from the lips of my mother just like these team leaders. I tried to be on my best behavior and win some love and recognition, but the difference is that I was felt alone and empty even inside the bubble of my mother’s lie. I always knew there was something wrong and now I reached what I thought I was missing. Friends, even if maybe it was too soon to claim them as such, who helped me and saw me as an actual person. They gave me the right attention. The attention that acknowledges that I’m alive and real and valuable. I was overwhelmed by the amount of empathy I suddenly came to feel when I understood their situation. I might be totally wrong about what they feel, but I knew even if they couldn’t understand it now they would eventually see it if given time. Given the right attention.

            Noticing that I had gone quiet and stopped struggling, Jessie turned around to look at me in total confusion. I let out a small laugh and turned to her with a small smile.

            “I hope you win your fights. I’m rooting for you.”

            She took a step back and looked even more puzzled.

            “Jess! Jess! He let you…”

            “Camerupt use Earth Power!”

            I turned towards Maxie’s voice and saw that he had called out one of his Pokémon while all of us were distracted. I hadn’t seen it before now, but it had red shaggy fur and three blue ring-shaped markings on both sides of its body. Two strange looking pillars stuck out from its back and while the Pokémon readied itself for the attack I realized the two pillars were actually volcanoes that even had ash and steam billowing out of them! It slammed its heavy body on the ground and I saw a glowing crack begin to crawl its way towards the stage, disappearing underneath us.

            “Oh Jess this is bad! We should…”

            But before James could finish his sentence, the ground beneath them jutted up and slammed into him, Meowth, and Wobbufett. The three of them went flying into the sky, screaming out for Jessie as they went before their bodies grew so tiny I couldn’t see them anymore. They disappeared with a quick twinkle.

            While Jessie was distracted, I quickly swung my feet and slammed them into her hand letting the red button skid off with a bounce off the stage. Jessie was about to rush after it when Maxie beat her to it and quickly pressed it freeing me from the metal claw. I plopped down on the floor and stood up to look at her. Her face was contorted into one of anguish and anger as she came to realize she wasn’t winning even as I saw her hands linger in her jacket’s pockets, probably thinking of letting out one of her Pokémon. She bit her lip silently and then took her hand and pointed it at me, shaking and shaking it without actually speaking.

            “It’s always the twerps. We can’t ever seem to get a lucky break. Just when things are looking up the world is like hey, why don’t we just let it all crash down around you. Keep it coming! Keep it coming! We’ve made it through worse than this.”

            “Jessie…”

            “No, don’t speak twerp. At least let me monologue a bit. Because you can’t possibly understand how much anger is coursing through my veins. All four of us have tried to live our best lives and every time we get into someplace comfortable, apparently, we don’t deserve it. Apparently, we’re too stupid to have it. And look at you. It just comes naturally. The hero.”

            “But it doesn’t come naturally to me! I…”

            “It does twerp. The minute you blast me off everyone will come out of the hole their all hiding in and cheer for you. They won’t even think about us. They won’t say, ‘Gee, I wonder if they crash landed safely wherever the hell they got knocked off too.’ They’ll laugh and laugh. Laugh at our failure. Laugh at us because we’re nothing to them. But it’s not your fault, I know.”

            I kept looking on at her. Her hair was undone and messy now. Large bunches of hair were gently swaying back and forth as she returned my stare. The smoke from the burning speakers bent the light in such a way that it almost looked like she was somewhere else, somewhere far off. She was suspended by the tendrils of darkness that crept their way around her body so that only her face peeked through. And still a soft, small smile decorated her face as she nodded to herself as if confirming something to herself.

            “Even the worst of the worst have dreams.”

Even her eyes seemed to look right through me and I rushed over to her, breaking the smokes hold on to grab her hand.

            “I know the whole point of your heist was to extort money out of me, but I’m not even an idol. I don’t have money. I don’t have a family. I don’t have anything, not yet. I’m not even sure who the hell I am or what the hell I am doing or if this will help you even one bit, but I know for sure that you can’t be what you expect yourself to be. You can only be the person you are. And trust me, even that is hard enough to admit.”

            I squeezed her hand and she looked down at them.

            “I’m rooting for you.”

            She turned her head up and I thought I felt something strange then. My heartfelt warm and her hands felt warm. Her eyes had a shimmering sparkle and she stood silently there, looking at me. We stood just looking. Everyone was just looking.

            I looked down at her hand and noticed she herself had an xtransceiver on her wrist and quickly turned it on, recording my own number in her contacts. She followed my actions silently before she pulled her hand away to look at my contact info: Twerp <3.

            “You ever ready for a fight just tell me ahead of time that you’re looking for it.”

            “This doesn’t mean I like you twerp.”

            “I know.”

            “We’re still bad guys.”

            “I know.”

            “Your friends probably won’t like this.”

            “You’re right, but it’s my decision.”

            She looked up at me and shook her head with a smirk.

            “Well, looks like Team Rocket i—“

            Out of nowhere, a whirlwind of leaves rushed in and slammed into Jessie. Her jacket was torn apart by the sharp leaves that rushed past here with the wind and before I could do anything, the whirlwind swung her violently upward.

            “—is blasting off again!”

            I watched in horror as she grew smaller and smaller before she twinkled into disappearance. I turned with a glare at Maxie who was also watching everything in confusion.

            “Why’d you do that for?”

            “That wasn’t me.”

            “Then who was it?”

            I turned around to look at the empty square, but there wasn’t any soul around besides Maxie and I. I frowned before jumping down back to the cobblestone of the ground. Before I could dwell a long time on Team Rocket I felt a small bump on my leg and turned to see Mimikyu. I picked him up and snuggled him right up to my face.

            “You did it! I’m so proud of you-you're a life saver Mimikyu.”

            “Ahem.”

            “Oh, I guess you were tons of help to Maxie.”

            Maxie let out a small chuckle before he walked over and put a hand on my shoulder. His face turned serious as he looked me over.

            “You sure you’re fine with giving your number to the bunch of idiots that tried to hurt you? Even I have to admit, that’s a pretty stupid move.”

            “I’m sure. You might not agree, but I don’t think they’re that bad of people.”

            “If they come back they’ll likely place us in danger given the nature of what we’re trying to do as well.”

            “Don’t worry. If something goes bad, I’ll make sure it doesn’t land on you guys.”

            Maxie fixed his glasses and simply nodded without saying anything else on the subject.

            “What was the call you got about?”

            “There’s a situation going down at the Pokémon Center. We have to get over there quickly. Grimsley and Wallace say the center has been overrun with trainers in strange uniforms. The trainers are rounding up people and seem to be searching for someone in specific which is most likely Candice and that makes those trainers grunts of The Father. The two of them are keeping her safe, but to make an escape they’ll need us.”

            I picked up Mimikyu in my hands and nodded my head.

            “Let’s go then. We’ve wasted a lot of time here al—“

            Suddenly, a chorus of sirens began to wail from every street that leads into the square. I could see red and blue lights paint the buildings before dozens of police cars sped out and flooded the square around them. The vehicles halted and blocked every exit from view and encircled the burning stage as officers in uniforms quickly exited their cars and hid behind them. Pistols pointed towards us.

            My heartbeat was going haywire.

            What if my mother reported me missing? She could play her mother act pretty well and if she convinced them it was true that I attacked her and runaway or something like that the police was no doubt here to drag me away! I was sick to my stomach.

            I moved to hide behind Maxie and he put a hand on my waist to keep me boxed in behind him.

            “Don’t worry. I’ll handle this.”

            “Okay.”

            I looked at all the officers, but they weren’t really moving or talking or doing anything. Well, they had their guns pointed at us. But as they stared each other down, two people seemed to part the bodies of the officers as they came into view in the square.

            A tall woman with lavender hair and a black suit seemed to survey the burning stage with her cold, purple eyes. Beside her was an older looking man with black hair and a long mustard trench coat with a black suit hidden below it. He followed her eyes as well.

            “What do you make of this Looker?”

            “Who knows. With all the crazy shit happening here, it’s a wonder this place hasn’t seen more violence.”

            The two then quickly snapped their heads in our direction and moved closer. Maxie pushed a bit further back as he straightened himself up.

            “Who are you guys?”

            “Calm down, Maxie. You’re acting like an anxious dog.”

            “How do you know my name?”

            “Why wouldn’t I? I used to work at the Battle Frontier in Hoenn so I know all about your little exploits. What I’m more curious about is the little friend you’ve seemed to have acquired. What would your name be?”

            “Leave him out of this.”

            “Ah, but see we can’t really do that. It seems that no matter how hard we tried we couldn’t find any information about him in the citizen registry. While we surveyed the area around the city, we ran across a home with no address where it seemed something rather violent had occurred. Low and behold we found a security system that had only camera surveillance with no audio of the inside of the house. And who was living in it, but none other than that kid hiding right behind you. So, if you don’t mind, we’ll be bringing the two of you into questioning at the police station.”

            “What authority do you have to do that?”

            “The authority of the International Police.”

 

           

           

           


	3. Episode 3: The Fourth Disciple Checks-In!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry this update took so long, but I'm in the middle of finishing up finals for college so I was writing on and off between papers and exams. I made the chapter a bit longer than the first two to hopefully make up for it. I hope you guys enjoy!

There was a strange silence that hung over the entire police car as we made our way to the police station. Maxie and I were handcuffed as we sat in the back of a jeep that Detective Looker and Anabel were driving. I’d obviously never heard of the International Police before they were name dropped during Champion Lautaro’s statement after the League Final attack, but if they were such an important branch for policing all over the Pokémon world they had to mean serious business. Not only that, but they’d managed to find my mother’s house and comb over everything they found there and figure out how it leads back to me in just a single day. It was terrifying.

            _They could just very well be here at the request of the Pokémon League to sincerely deal with The Father and his grunts without having a clue what’s going on and in that case they’re being used in some way to aid that person. Or they could be consciously working toward helping the bad people. And then that still leaves the League and Sinesensu with the same questions. We really are alone in this until we figure things out._

I glanced down at my handcuffs to look at Mimikyu who was rested on top of my folded hands and the bag with my clothes sat beside to the right. He had put up a really nasty fight when Anabel and Looker had come close to try and handcuff me and I had to tell him that everything was fine, but I told the two agents that I didn’t have his pokéball and even if I did, he wouldn’t have wanted to go in it. They caved in and let him stay with me, but obviously we had to voluntarily allow ourselves to be taken in and I say voluntarily very loosely. I mean they had guns pointed on us so it was implied quite strongly that there was no choice.

            I turned to look at Maxie and he seemed to be lost in thought probably worrying over Grimsley and Wallace and the situation at the Pokémon Center. He hadn’t received any additional calls and he had tried to unsuccessfully convince the two agents that something terribly wrong was happening at the center, but the two wouldn’t hear any of it. They hadn’t gotten any distress calls and the center always had local officers stationed there so if anything was happening it was none of their concern. Of course, the two of them didn’t believe him.

            I had to admit to myself it was a bit exhilarating even as a fear returned to me. The idea of being trapped again in that house if my mother found me and how she wouldn’t even try to create the “pleasant” lie she had done before was unsettling. She’d probably just toss me in a cell or room and treat me like dirt, not that she hadn’t already been treating me shitty before. But I’d never felt more alive and important than in this moment, when I was in the thick of a serious plot to do—something, something that was world changing. I was receiving this attention that I had never gotten from my mother and whether it was positive or negative didn’t really matter and that kind of scared me. It was attention. Attention that made me feel real.

            “What’s your name?”

            I jumped up at the cool, steely voice of Anabel as her eyes darted to the rearview mirror to look at me. Her eyes always looked like they were gauging her surroundings, like she wasn’t comfortable or trusting of anything.

            “I don’t want to.”

            “You’ll have to start answering questions eventually or we won’t ever let you out. We’re trying to help out here.”

            “You’re just going to end up making things worse.”

            “Why is that?”

            “Even if we told you, you’d hardly try to give us the benefit of the doubt. We gave you a tip about a situation at the Pokémon Center and though you claim such huge righteousness, you dismiss it as not your problem? Please, go wax poetic to people who weren’t born yesterday.”

            I turned to look at Maxie as his voice interrupted her questioning. He wasn’t turned to look at her, but I could definitely feel the anger that spread out like waves from his now silent figure. It was nice to have Maxie here with me. Having other people gave me confidence I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.

“Very well. We’ll have all the time in the world to talk at the station.”

            That was the end of whatever conversation could be had in the car so for most of the ride I simply stared out and watched the people walking outside with their Pokémon and friends. As the car meandered through the streets, the blue waves of the ocean became more and more visible and the small houses that made up the square where we were staying began to give way to large, imposing skyscrapers whose glass bodies glimmered under the weak rays of the sunlight. We’d probably arrived right in the heart of Snowpoint City.

            The car then took a left turn out of the street to enter the parking lot of a rather old looking building. Instead of being made of glass and steel, the police station was made of red bricks that were faded and grey in places. It was considerably smaller than the skyscrapers as well, but it still held a very intimidating air of history and authority that seemed out of place against the glossy newness of the city. It was like the building existed in its own small bubble outside of the rest of the city’s reality.

            Once the car was parked, Anabel and Looker got out of the car, each moving towards one side of the car. Looker opened Maxie’s door and began to escort him out into the building and Anabel came to open my door. She gently pulled me out by the arm and I willingly allowed myself to be pulled along.

            We climbed a long set of stone stairs before we pressed through a revolving door and entered the station’s lobby. The ceiling was held up by four big archways that curved up from pillars that made two parallel lines on the left and right side of the room. In the middle, a large, brown, wooden desk that curved into itself was surrounded by officers in uniform chatting about with the receptionist. Two sets of staircases led up to a second landing behind the reception desk that led to probably some office rooms since most of the travelling officers seemed to be hurriedly moving up and down from there and directly behind the desk I could see stairs that led down probably to cells and rooms for interrogation. Thin light fixtures that looked kind of like twisting branches decorated the lobby as well.

            _If we were planning to get out of here, then it was going to have to be one insane con to be able to outmaneuver all these officers._

            Anabel began to push through all the noise and officers as she pulled me towards the staircase behind the reception desk. Some officers gave side longed glances as they followed her and me trying to figure out why an agent of the International Police was pulling a 20-year-old in handcuffs to the interrogation rooms. I could hear their whispering, but not anything clear enough to get their conversations.

            When we reached the desk, the officers hanging around it scattered once they caught sight of us, and the only person left was the receptionist. She was an older woman with strikingly white hair and soft wrinkles that made her face warm and inviting when she shot a smile in our direction. Her blue eyes twinkled as she stood and gave a small bow. Her red blouse made her tan skin glow.

            “Ms. Anabel welcome back. Shall I call Chief Carrington?”

            “No Marcela, that won’t be necessary. Let the chief continue his business. Things have been chaotic enough as is so Looker and I will handle this.”

            ‘Very well Ms. Anabel. Let me know if you need anything.”

            We pushed past the reception and descended the small set of stairs into a darker, colder hallway that extended pretty far back. The hall was lit with dull, blue lights that buzzed gently above our heads. We didn’t walk much further before we entered a small room with a single table and two chairs. She pushed me in before closing the door and heading to one of the chairs to sit. I slowly made my way to the table and stood there and she kept looking on at me.

            “You can sit.”

            “Trust me. I would sit if I wasn’t handcuffed and holding my sleeping Pokémon in my hand.”

            She didn’t seem affected by my dry reply and merely leaned over to push the chair out so I could finally sit down. Then—she just sat there continuing to watch me. There was something disarming about her purple eyes as they watched me and I could only move my attention to something besides her eyes. Her lips were colored a striking red and her skin was pale, but under the blue buzzing light it was colored in blue hues as well.

            “So tell me, what’s your name?”

            I didn’t say anything. She kept staring.

            “What’s your name?”

            Her eyes reminded me of my mother’s. That’s why I found them so disarming. There was a cool calculated shimmer behind them like she was picking me apart. She was trying to find ways to pick me apart, to understand what moves to make me surrender my will. It was no different then my mother.

            “I can sit here all day.”

            _Well, if I wasn’t on the “citizen registry” like she said, then it wouldn’t hurt to let her think she’s getting something crucial. If this woman didn’t know my name, chances are she knew nothing of my mom or her work. Mother probably purposefully left only the surveillance videos where I was and erased anything else to lead people on to myself. Let the authorities do the work for her while she figured things out. It was the kind of cool logic I’d expect of her._

“Abelino.”

            She nodded her head like she was thoughtfully pondering the name, but I knew it was bullshit.

            “What’s your last name?”

            “I don’t know.”

            “You don’t know?”

            ‘Yeah, I don’t.”

            ‘Didn’t your parents tell you?”

            “Well, my mother killed my father and then wiped my memory. So what do you think?”

            She leaned back in her chair and that was the only clue to know that she was a bit taken aback because her face remained calm. I doubt she’d believe it all. She saw what happened in the house, but it’d be difficult, I think, for her to take me totally serious. She’d probably think I inflated reality to get to her.

            “So, I reckon the two of you had a fight?”

            “You could say that.”

            “What was it about?”

            “A difference of outlooks.”

            “You’re not planning on telling me much more are you?”

            “No.”

            Again, she simply nodded her head and hummed. She stood up and her black heels clicked with a resounding thump as she walked toward the door.

            “Very well. I can tell you won’t be any more willing than this. Hopefully, sometime here at the station will help you reevaluate your acquaintances.”

            “What do you guys even want from us? Arresting us for a mess we didn’t make as an excuse to just bring us in.”

            Her hand stopped short of the knob and she turned back with a small smile. Somehow that smile was more unnerving than her silent blankness.

            “We can trade pleasantries once you’ve decided to reconsider your unwillingness to aid our investigation. Now, come along. I have to drop you off in your cell before helping Looker out with your friend.”

            I stood up and followed her out, but I had to admit I was worried about Maxie. Even if I knew he’d be fine being pressed by the two agents, I still worried and mulled it over in my mind. I still couldn’t remove the fear of my mother’s reappearance especially when the Pokémon League run by her boss was the one who’d asked the IP to come in!

            “Here we are. Get in.”

            The cell had a bunk with a bed and no window with a sink. I stepped in and Anabel closed the glass door. The door’s border glowed blue before disappearing and confining me within the box of the cell.

            “You know, people like that man can’t be trusted. People never change. Sooner or later they go back to their old ways.”

She tapped the glass twice before walking back the way we had came. There wasn’t any handle in the inside so it could only be open from the outside which meant there wasn’t really anyway for me to plot an escape. I walked over to the bed and laid face up, staring at the white ceiling, the white walls, the white sheets, the white _everything_.

            _Looks like you’re still following me around mother. You and your poor color choices._

I glanced down at Mimikyu who was still sound asleep and I realized the little guy had been through quite a lot with me. First mother, then Team Rocket, and now this. It must’ve been taxing with how worried and ready to fight he was. He was small and quite cute, but that didn’t take away from how much of a brave and amazing Pokémon partner he had been. I caressed his head and pulled him close before closing my eyes.

            “We’ll be fine. We shouldn’t stress ourselves out and take this moment to recover.”

            That’s where I ended up closing my eyes to the sheer, empty ceiling. That’s where another dream came to me.

            _After a moment of pure darkness, I opened my eyes and found myself in a living room. There was a long, dark brown couch that was pressed up against the far wall and a large window that wrapped around the wall to the left of me. Lazy rays of sunlight filtered through the white curtains onto a small, rectangular table with a crudely made flower vase with chrysanthemums of various colors. I walked over to the makeshift vase and realized it was simply a can that had been painted over pink and covered with various Pokémon stickers and their names drawn in marker below them. Sylveon, Mimikyu, Ribombee, Spirittomb, Gardevoir, Absol, Rotom, Umbreon. And right in the middle of the stickers and writing were glittering letters that spelled out: ABELINO._

_Was this my house?_

_I turned around to look at everything else in the room and noticed there were tons of boxes littered about. Some were open, some were not. I walked to an open one and peeked inside to see plushies, tons of them. I sifted my hand through their softness and my fingers tingled with a gentle warmth. My skin seemed to—recognize the feeling of touching them._

_I heard the sound of heavy footsteps and turned to see my father striding in. He had on dark, blue jeans with a checkered red and yellow flannel that made him look like a lumberjack. He set down three large boxes he was carrying with a resounding thump and gazed around the room with a content smile. I hadn’t really noticed how burly and large he was, but he was a real mountain of a man. That poor flannel was struggling to keep his arms and chest trapped!_

_Here, in this dream, he had a scruffy looking black beard that had a few white hairs in it and his brown boots were dirty with mud. I saw him pick up a small, pink box and walk over to sit himself down on the couch. He traced the edges of it with a fat finger and hummed a little to himself. With a gentle click, he flipped the two silver latches that kept it closed and opened it. Inside were three pokéball. I walked over and sat beside him._

_Each of the balls were customized! The first one had a coating over it that made it look like the night sky, purplish black with silver flecks that caught some gentle rays of light. The second was coated in pure glitter that made the ball seem like it was producing its own light. The last one, was the most striking. It had a line of crescent moons wrapping the equator of the ball with a gradient of sunset that moved from blood red at the poles, to a soft violet in the space around the moons. Clouds floated here and there in the space between the middle and top and they mimicked the color gradient, their bottoms painted violet changing until the color was red at the top._

_It was then that I’d noticed a card tucked behind the balls that had elegant lace decorating its edges. In an elegant scrawl it was written again: Abelino._

_These were meant for me?_

_I heard a telephone begin to ring again and my father closed the case and reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. This was a lot stranger than the last dream. There wasn’t any version of me around so this couldn’t possibly be any of my memories. It had to be just a dream._

_“Hello? Yes, this is Federico. Rowan? It’s been a long time old friend! How have you been keeping up? I’m sorry I haven’t been keeping in touch as frequently as I would have liked to._

_That’s great to hear! I’ve been wrapped up in my own research as well. I tried settling down you know—got a really cute kid, Abelino. Him and Camila came right in the nick of time to save me from myself, but my work began to pull me more and more away from the house and then the—well, you know.”_

_There was a strange sadness that lingered in his voice and I moved directly beside him. His eyes seemed a bit distant like Jessie’s had been earlier in the day. He was just staring at the wall right in front of him._

_“Yeah, thank you Rowan. I’m glad to be back in Sinnoh. Abelino—well he’s been having a difficult time adjusting. Alola has been his home since he was born and when I broke the news of moving to him he was so upset. He actually said he hated me. You can imagine how torn I was. His reaction alone was enough to give me pause about what I was really trying to do, but I know that this is good for us both. He needs this. I need this to—I’m doing this for his own good. I needed to do better and fix what I’d done.”_

_Alola? That’s where I was born? And fixed what I’d done? What did he do?_

_I didn’t know if I could trust this. All of this was just too close and blurred to know if it was dream or memory. It was too much to grasp all at once._

_“Research? That’s been progressing smoothly. I didn’t think people would take my thesis seriously quite honestly. The study of dreams is a fascinating one, but also something that can be easily dismissed as supernatural if you’re not prepared with the evidence to back it up. I actually made a quick stop in Unova to speak to a woman named Dr. Fennel. I’m sure you’re familiar with her and her work with trainers and Pokémon. She had notes on her own theories regarding dreams that she had collected and so we compared and debated a few things. I promised to share my own findings and correspond with her as soon as I set up here. I’m convinced that C—“_

_The sound of someone crying had made my dad pause his sentence. The sobs got louder and louder until the sound of a door being thrown open echoed across the house and a younger me, probably 6 or 7, came running in. The bangs of my red hair were being held back with a shimmering pin in the shape of a Mimikyu and the rest of my hair was messily tussled about and full of twigs and leaves. I was wearing a peach skirt with the white silhouettes of a Sylveon running along the bottom hem and a pink sweater—both of which were covered in mud and wrinkled considerably. I couldn’t see my face because I was covering my eyes with a pink sleeve._

_“We’ll have to continue our conversation Rowan. I have to go have a talk with my son.”_

            _My father stood and followed younger me until we reached a room down a hall, at the very end. I slammed the door right in my father’s face and I could hear the loud click of the lock as my father let out a sigh._

_“Abelino, you know you should be at school.”_

_“I hate school.”_

_“Why’s that?”_

_“It’s not like home.”_

_“But you were so excited to start Pokémon studies this year.”_

_“It’s no fun.”_

_“Why?”_

_“Because.”_

_“Because?”_

_“Because—“_

_There was a large silence, but you could hear gentle sobs leaking from the door. I quickly clutched my chest as a sudden ache wrapped its way around me. It was suddenly hard to breathe. My head began to ache too._

_“Open the door caramelo.”_

_Nothing happened for a few seconds, but sure enough, the door began to creak open and small, brown eyes shimmering with tears peeked out from behind it._

_Father opened his arms and I rushed from behind the door and snuggled up to his chest. He pet my head gently while whispering things to me in a language I couldn’t recognize, but it sounded familiar. It had strange accents that wrapped around the ear and tongue when I tried to mimic them. Each word was full of warmth and richness of sound that made plain English sound almost boring. It might be just the fact that it was my dad whispering these things to my past self, but it really felt like they held a mysterious power in them._

_“Now, what happened?”_

_“I—I—I…”_

_“Ok, remember what I told you. Deep_ _respiraciones._ _Count: Uno, dos, tres…”_

_“Cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez.”_

_“Good. Now, tell me.”_

_“I was really happy about the gifts you got me so I wanted to tell everyone about it on my first day. I—really liked the skirt and the hair pin and I’ve always had clothes like this—no one laughed at them—before…”_

_I could see father wince at the mention of that place and he caressed my small cheek in his large hand._

_“I went up to some kids—but they started laughing pa! They laughed and laughed. They said they couldn’t believe I would wear pretty clothes. I told them that it was fine as long as I liked them and they said it wasn’t fine. That I probably didn’t have a pa because he would’ve already beat me for it. I told them that you would never beat me because you were nice and kind and you loved me. They kept making fun of me and when they said you weren’t any pa at all I—“_

_My small body began to tremble in my father’s arms and that was when I noticed it. The two small hands that were clutched into fists at my side. The small bony knuckles were stained a nasty looking green and purple. It looked like I would tumble over with all the shaking that had seized up my body._

_“I hit one of the boys. I hit him and I hit him before the teacher came over and pushed me off him. She said I was being bad. That I was being really bad, but pa you said I should never let anyone hurt me or the people I really love! You said I had to be strong and fight back when it counted. I had to hit him!_

_She didn’t understand. When we had break, all the boys came and started hitting me with mud balls and I just—ran away. Now, my clothes are all dirty. You got them for me…_

_I hate them! They’re all mean and horrible. I hate them. I hope they trip and fall in mud.”_

_“You can’t hate them Abelino. They just don’t understand.”_

_“I do hate them pa! How could they say mean things about you? You’re—“_

_“Abelino, listen.”_

_My father grabbed my face between his two hands and stared right at my swollen eyes._

_“It’s true. I told you to fight back against those who hurt you or the ones you love. Fight tooth and nail for them, pero caramelo, the things they told you were just words. Words only hurt while they’re said. You fight yes, but when it counts.”_

_“What they said hurt a lot pa.”_

_“Yes, but it’ll pass.”_

_“It won’t! I hate them! I hate them!”_

_“Abelino…”_

_I noticed it then…a sudden chill that was hanging in the air. Even the light that filtered through from the windows seemed to dull, it became twisted in an unsettling way like things were moving, crawling across the floor and walls. My father seemed to sense the change and a look of panic entered his eyes._

_“Please Abelino, li—“_

“Wake up.”

            My eyes shot open at the loud resounding command. I sat up and noticed Mimikyu was missing from my hands. I looked and found him crying at the glass door where Anabel stood watching me. I walked over and glared at her, feeling utterly pissed that she had interrupted my dream in such a way. _Right when I was seeing more about my life._

“Your friend had been just as amiable as you were and I have grown really weary of the two of you. You seem to not understand the motion of events yet. A rogue organization with clear intention of harming people is out there, right now, plotting God knows what and the two of you refuse to cooperate with us. You clearly have something to say regarding that house in the woods. Whether or not it pertains to the recent attacks is a matter entirely separate. Can you possibly comprehend that or are you too stupid even for that?”

            “We’ve already warned you that something dangerous is happening at the Pokémon Center. What you choose to listen to and believe is for your own stupidity to decide.”

            She squinted her eyes and looked me up and down again. She clearly didn’t like the new change of attitude and her sharp, purple eyes again tried to pick me apart with the looming silence. She let out a heavy sigh as she rubbed the bridge of her nose and gave me a small smile.

            “Sorry. I obviously over stepped my bounds that time. This situation is just getting more and more complicated by the hour and there’s almost nothing to go off from so we’re quite literally stuck at zero. If you have any information at all, I would be grateful to have it considering the lives of a lot of people are on the line.”

            “I don’t have any information to offer you aside from what Maxie and I have already told you.”

            She looked at me and I swear I saw a look of disappointment come across her face before she nodded her head in silence.

            “You know; I understand where you’re coming from. I remember back when I set out on my own journey in Hoenn and I thought the world revolved around me. I had this insane dream to be the best trainer there was and to befriend every Pokémon and trainer that I could. In fact, I became a Frontier Brain thanks to that drive, but that was a long road that made me realize many things. This is a world full of wonder and equally one full of pain.”

            “Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?”

            “No. I was simply trying to say you reminded me of myself when I first started out. When someone treated me nicely, it was hard to convince me that we weren’t automatically friends. Everyone was my friend until I realized they weren’t.”

            “I’m not that naïve. You’re nothing like me.”

            Anabel nodded her head and I was taken aback by the sad smile that twisted across her lips. It was totally disarming.

            “Right. Well, you’ll st—“

            A large amount of shouting began to ring out across the hallway back from where the lobby was. I couldn’t hear quite well, but it sounded like they were shouting at someone to stand down. Anabel turned to look down the hall and her hand reached down to her belt where I noticed for the first time a row of six pokéballs hung by her hip. She also had a pistol strapped right beside the pokéballs as well and her hand rested on it as she peered down the hall.

            “What’s going on?”

            “I’m not sure.”

            “Well, you have to let me out then! We told you something bad was going on and you didn’t listen!”

            “No! You’ll stay in that cell. If something is going on, you’ll be much safer in there.”

            “No I won’t. You just don’t trust me.”

            “You’re wrong. I don’t trust you, but I also don’t want some kid dead.”

            “I’m 20! At least, remove these handcuffs so I can defend myself and Mimikyu if things don’t turn out the way you would like them to.”

            The shouting started to get louder and Anabel began to move away from the glass door. I kicked it with my foot to get her attention, but she wasn’t even bothering to look.

 

“I’ll come check on you when I deal with this.”

I had to get her to let me out! I needed to find wherever Maxie was. But she was gone already, and me and Mimikyu were left to figure things out for ourselves.

            I leaned down to pick him up and moved us to the center of the room.

            “Ok Mimikyu, you can use Shadow Ball. But are there any other moves you can do that might cut these handcuffs? We might need to fight some bad guys.”

            Mimikyu gave a small scream and titled its head left and right. I was assuming that was a yes so I moved a bit away from him to give him some space.

            “Ok Mimikyu. Use the move right on the handcuffs. You have to make sure just to hit the metal or you’ll probably slice off my hands. Ready?”

            I stretched out my arms and made sure the cuffs were in his direct sight. Mimikyu’s eyes glinted and he jumped up. A long, shadowy tendril flew out from under him and arced up into the shape of a human hand except not really. Its fingers were jagged and purple as it swung down and hit the cuffs with a resounding thwack and the two metal circles thudded onto the floor. I rubbed my wrist and ran over to lift Mimikyu up. I gave him a small kiss on his forehead.

            “Mimikyu you’re great! I don’t know where I’d be without your help.”

            “My, what a touching sight. A cute little boy and his Pokémon becoming partners right before my eyes. It really does something for me.”

            I turned to the glass door with Mimikyu in my hands and found the owner of the voice. His voice was slippery. Slippery because he dragged the sound of a few words like with a strange sense of pleasure. Like he liked to play around with their sounds. His figure was also fairly imposing. He was taller than the door so he had to bend down to peer through the glass at me and his pink eyes glimmered with a playful twinkle as he looked me up and down. His skin was a bronze brown that looked almost black outlined by the dull blue lights buzzing above him.

            His outfit was odd. Two orange colored bracelets were wrapped around his two ankles and golden sandals, woven with pink string were what he wore on his feet. It looked like he had on pink running shorts with thighs and when I looked closer I could tell it was almost see through so that his brown skin was visible. The outlines of many tattoos peeked through and it seemed they ran all the way up his leg and up into his belly and arms. He had on only a black sweater that stopped midway down his chest so that his thin and flat stomach was visible to all. The half sweater itself was torn at places and underneath you could see the tattoos also covered his arms and stretched up onto his neck. His black hair was longish and fell over his eyes in bangs that kept the left one hidden away mostly from sight.

            “Who are you?”

            He gave a small smile and tapped the glass door gently as he traced imaginary drawings with his fingers.

            “Ah, you’d really like to know? I’d rather hear all about you Abelino.”

            “How do you know who I am?”

            “I’m so hurt Abelino. I thought you’d remember me, but I guess my sister’s botched up project really fucked with your head. Camila wouldn’t stop ranting about her experiment. You can just imagine how utterly annoying that bitch was about the whole deal. To think she was put in place by a little minx like yourself. She groveled at the feet of our Father and begged for the chance to come snatch you back, but Father tires of failure and lack of results. He sent me to come fetch you after we noticed how much of a bad bad boy you’ve been. Rushing to help Cynthia’s little lapdogs.”

            _Sister? He was my mother’s brother? My…uncle. My head was starting to pound. I’m not sure if he really is my uncle, but he at least was one of the people my mother worked with and he was here to collect me for The Father. But how did they figure out I was with Maxie and them? Mother couldn’t have guessed who I’d run to when I didn’t know anyone at all or…does she know something I don’t? Something from my memories that I haven’t remembered? Someone I can’t remember?_

_Lucas. Camilla. Federico._

“You worked with my mother?”

            “Oh yes and let me tell you, I don’t blame you for blasting her through a flight of stairs. Everyone back at home despises her. She is always at our Father’s feet thinking she is the favorite and ordering us around like we were beneath her when she had barely done anything but come up with some little drug she thought might be useful. To think she was my own sister, and she still could treat poor ole me like dirt. Oh, I would’ve loved to wrap my fingers around her neck and—“

            He tried choking the air in front of the glass door and when the trembling in his body subsided he turned back to me with a small smile.

            “Ah, pardon me. She’s still your mother after all. These kind of stories just write themselves don’t they!”

            “Who are you though?”

            “Oh, you want to be on a first name basis with me? You’re really trying to pull me in, huh. Well, sorry little Ribombee, you’’ have to seduce me once we get home. Father wants you all to himself.

Beltran. Dear Uncle Beltran come to save the day! Fourth disciple of our Father. His faithful Raven of the night.”

            _Uncle Beltran? Why did his name sound so familiar? His voice was trying to pull out something from me, something that I didn’t know if it was good or bad. It was making my head hurt like a crazy._

            A chill ran up my spine as he bowed to me and kissed the glass door. I could still feel his eyes tracing along the edges of my body and I stepped further away. It only seemed to press him on though because he grabbed himself through his shorts and made a show of letting me see the print of his large dick up against the mirror. His pink eyes glinting with a glossing of mischievousness. It was perverse and twisted and made my skin crawl. He made my mom look like a school teacher.

            “If you can stop being a total pervert for a minute, could you answer me this? You’re just supposed to take me back to my mother?”

            He kept grinding his body up and down on the glass. His breath was fogging it up considerably and I wondered to myself why the hell someone like this would be working for a terrorist group with the intention of killing people. He could hardly control himself and even thinking like that I still couldn’t shake off his strange nature. He just claimed he was my uncle and here he is getting himself off in front of his nephew? Something was just telling me I’d rather be dealing with mother than with this man.

            “No. Father has grown tired with Camila and her setbacks so he wants you personally delivered into his hands. Imagine how happy he’ll be with me if I can resolve this quickly. I’ll surely inch up in his mind and he might even reward me. Although, his punishments are always the most thrilling.”

            He stepped away from the door and reached for his neck and I realized that wrapped around his neck was a pink collar. I couldn’t make out if it had any markings or design, but all along it were six shrunken pokéballs, two of which he snapped off and tossed. Two Pokémon I had never seen before popped out from them. The first one had two large wings that had a blue, red, yellow pattern and a small round body that looked like it had three eyes. Two blue ones in the middle of its circular body and a larger one on a protruding black tip on top. It had a dangling wing similar to the larger ones, but it didn’t look like it used that one to fly. The second Pokémon was weirder. It had a small, light green body that was constantly smiling surrounded by a dark green liquid. It had arm like extensions that ended in three fingered hands and it was floating on its own, without wings or anything.

            “Now, step back or I can’t guarantee you’ll be delivered undamaged.”

            I moved away from the glass door toward the bunk bed.

            _Shit. I knew I wanted to escape, but if I let him take me I’d be handed over to those murdering bastards my mother works for! I don’t even know why they’d still want me if they’ve proved the chemical works fine enough, but I can’t let him take me._

I looked down at Mimikyu and leaned down to whisper to him.

            “Get ready to fight Mimikyu, okay? We can’t let this guy take us back to mother. Everyone is counting on us to pull our weight.”

            Mimikyu gave a small nod and I gave him a small smile. I was far from confident.

            I hadn’t really had a Pokémon battle with anyone before. My mother didn’t count since she was caught off guard and couldn’t really do much against me and I didn’t really fight Team Rocket either. Beltran was coming in ready to fight so I had to just be ready.

            “Reuniclus use Dizzy Punch!”

            Crap! I didn’t even know what moves Mimikyu knew! I couldn’t command him like Beltran was commanding his Pokémon! Crap. Crap. CRAP.

            The glass door blew into the cell, shattering into thousands of pieces as Beltran strolled lazily in with his two Pokémon following close behind. Mimikyu and I were pressed up against the corner of the cell furthest from the door and the three of them were blocking enough space to make gunning it out with a run impossible. Beltran’s right eye peered down at me as he smiled.

            “Come on princess. Those cops aren’t going to be kept busy all day.”

            _Princess. I heard that before. His voice pulled on something inside of my head, but what? What was it? It felt familiar somehow and it scared me to think this man was somewhere there, in the past, in my memories and I couldn’t remember how or if we met._

            “What’s going on out there?”

            “Let just say their occupied with the Faithful.”

            The entire building was shaking here and there as loud shouts bounced off the walls. It was clear that this time I wasn’t going to have Maxie or anyone to back me up. Just like the time I went up against my mother.

            I turned to him and looked him dead in the eye. I was scared. Beyond fucking scared. But what would that fear do for me, if I just laid down and let myself be taken down?

            “That’s a nice look in your eyes. What is your heart telling you? _I have to fight. I have to fight. That’s what a trainer does,”_ his voice moved from its slipper deepness to an airy and sentimental head voice that he was trying pass as my own, “That kind of heart is the type I kill to be able to have in my hands. I can imagine how your heart would feel inside my palm. I bet it’d be beating like crazy, crazy with fear. I bet it’d be warm and soft with your dreams. I bet if I chewed on it I could taste the innocence that Camila’s tried so hard to twist apart. Ahhh, I’m excited!”

            He gazed at his right hand like he could see my heart inside of it while his left hand rubbed himself through his shorts. He caressed the empty air their and made a cooing sound with his voice as he closed his eyes and smiled. Clicking his tongue, he crushed the imaginary heart and opened his eyes.

            “Well, that’s not entirely true. I wanted to be the one to eat you up since you were young, but that little brat interrupted our fun didn’t he? Or do you not remember our little game princess?”

            “What game? I don’t even know who yo—AHHH!”

            My head began to pound again. The pain was ringing all around my head and my vision began to blur. Mimikyu slid over to me and tapped and tapped my legs, but all I could do was clutch my head between my hands.

            “My sister really did fuck you up, but you remember me. Just let that little head of yours hear my voice. I’m not an unforgettable person now, am I?”

            Mimikyu let out small cries, but Beltran moved up so that he was kneeling directly in front of me. Mimikyu started glowing with a purple outline, but Beltran stayed focused on me and his right hand slithered onto my cheek. He smelled strange like salt almost. Salt and something else, something fresh and cool. It was a nostalgic smell.

            “Calm down guard dog I’m just taking a closer look at my prize.”

            _Prize?_

At that single word my vision blacked out completely and with my head still ringing, I opened my eyes inside another memory—another dream.

            _I was in the same living room as my father had been in my previous dream, but this time I found my younger self sat on the couch while a teenaged Beltran, with white shorts and a pink shirt that said “A wizard has turned me into a Jigglypuff. Is this cool? Y/N?”, stood smiling in front of me. I was wearing the same peach skirt from before, but now it was clean and looking brand new and the pink sweater was now a lavender one. The house felt noticeably darker despite the sun still leaking through the curtains. Everything seemed dull, cold, distant. The same Mimikyu pin from before held my bangs away from eyes and I sat there twiddling my thumbs nervously. Beltran’s eyes raked over and over me._

_“What’s your name?”_

_I sat there without looking at him and he sat down next to me, his smile still shining._

_“I like your hair pin.”_

_I turned my head towards him and titled my head up a bit. My eyes sparkled with a bit of pride and I realized I probably would warm up to anybody who complimented my outfits considering what I saw in my last dream. I sent my own smile towards him._

_“It’s a super special pin! Pa got it just for me.”_

_“Well, he probably knew you’d look a lot prettier with your brown eyes showing. You look so cute.”_

_I blushed a light red and smiled as I looked down at my swinging feet._

_“You’re weird.”_

_“How am I weird?”_

_“You’re saying weird stuff. Only pa says I look cute. The rest of the kids at school don’t like me except Lucas. Lucas says I look nice sometimes.”_

_Lucas! So I did know him before, but this dream meant I also knew this guy._

_And I didn’t like that. I didn’t like him. I didn’t like what he was. I didn’t like his compliments. They were sticky. They felt uncomfortable and slippery just like his voice._

_His eyes glinted at my response and he seemed to lean back more casually and his hand lazily came up to pat my head._

_“Well, I guess I am weird then. Sister never mentioned I’d have such a cute little nephew.”_

_“Are you my uncle?”_

_I let out a small laugh and Beltran’s smile turned into a smirk._

_“Why the laugh?”_

_“You can’t be my uncle. You’re not old.”_

_“Do uncles have to be old? I didn’t know that was a requirement.”_

_“It’s—weird. See! I told you you were weird.”_

_He didn’t respond, but he began to play with the loose strands of my hair and I fidgeted under the constant presence of his eye as he stared at my face._

_“Your hair is very soft. It’s not like any other person’s hair I’ve ever touched.”_

_“Mom never said she had a little brother. Why hasn’t she called you for dinner?”_

_“Your mom thinks I’m a bad person.”_

_“Bad person?”_

_“Yes, a very bad person. She doesn’t like people to see me. She thinks I’m a nasty person.”_

_My eyes glinted a bit with sadness and an understanding. I blushed a bit and slipped my small left hand into his hand._

_“Mom must be wrong. She gets a lot of silly stuff wrong.”_

_“Why would she be wrong?”_

_“Because my pa said people who are nice to you do it from the heart. You’ve said really nice things to me so far so maybe mom is just angry. People do silly things when they’re angry.”_

_“Right, it must be that.”_

_His eyes gave a quick glance to my exposed legs and a sudden fear entered me. My stomach began to churn violently and suddenly this all felt familiar. But where the previous dreams all felt familiar in a good way, this one felt wrong. It felt wrong and strange._

_“Do you want to play a game?”_

_“A game? Like hide-and-seek?”_

_“No. This one is way more fun. It’s a game adults’ like to play a lot.”_

_“An adult game? But were not adults, we shouldn’t play it. Right?”_

_“But it’s really really fun, I promise. It’ll make me really sad if you say no.”_

_Beltran pouted and his voice slipped into a dull and cold tone has he made it look like he was about to stand. I looked over and a look of panic entered my face. My small hand reached over and caught his larger hand and he turned around with a bored look._

_“I’ll play! I’ll play! What’s the game called?”_

_“It’s called Hero’s Welcome.”_

_“Do we have to play heroes?”_

_“No. The older person is the hero who’s coming back from a very heroic fight. He’s very tired and sad and it’s up to the princess to welcome him home with lots of love so that he’s not so sad anymore. The younger person has to be the princess.”_

_“Do I have to be the princess?”_

_“Yes. Don’t worry. This is your first time playing so I’ll show you how to win the game.”_

_He leaned over and gave my cheek a lick, placing a kiss wherever he did._

_“Ewwww, only Pokémon lick people Beltran. That feels nasty.”_

_He didn’t respond and his large hand slipped up into the lavender sweater and pulled it up, exposing my nipples._

_I didn’t know if I could keep watching this. I could feel it on my body. It was like I was sharing the physical experience of the dream with my younger self and I felt his wet tongue slithering around my cheek. I wanted to wake up. I wanted to escape from this. And it suddenly occurred to me that remembering might not be a good thing. If memory was full of things like—this, then what other horrible things are lingering in my past?_

_He licked my nipples and I felt the bile rise up in my throat._

_“I—don’t want to play this game anymore.”_

_“Doesn’t it feel nice?”_

_“It feels weird. I don’t like it.”_

_“You can’t quit a game in the middle. That’s not fair.”_

_“But I said I don’t want to play anymore!”_

_My small hands tried pushing him away from my chest, but he refused to move and suddenly he bit down on one nipple and I screamed out._

_“That’s a bad bad thing to do. It’s very rude to push away someone who likes you.”_

_Right then, a toy car came flying out of nowhere and slammed right into Beltran’s head. The surprise of the hit made him back away and then a small body tackled his taller frame. Beltran hit the ground and a boy stood up and rushed over to me. He had bluish grey hair that was short, but slightly tousled and he had a white scarf wrapped around his neck. He had on a black long sleeve with a bunch of stitched Turtwig designs in white stitching with black shorts and running shoes. His grey eyes shined with a lot of anger._

_“Lucas?”_

_Lucas turned around to look at me and my eyes were red and full of a lot of tears. I had pushed down my sweater, but my face was still burning at the shame of something I still didn’t understand. I was trying to curl myself in as small as ball as I could possibly push myself to roll into. When my eyes directly fell into Lucas’s sight, I bit my lip and looked down, trying to push the sweater even further down. I wanted it to swallow me. It was a shame at being caught doing—something, something not night._

_Lucas turned to face Beltran and spread out his hands to block me from the teenager’s_

_sight._

_“Abelino said he didn’t want to play your stupid game so go away!”_

_“You little asshole. This was his and my playtime.”_

_“You made Abelino cry! Whatever game your playing is no fun. Go away or I’ll fight you.”_

_“I’m older than you. Stronger than you. I’ll have you out the door crying in a few seconds. That little princess is my prize not yours.”_

_“It doesn’t matter. I’ll fight anyone who hurts Abelino.”_

_I could hear the faint rhythm of my heartbeat jump a little at the sound of Lucas’s voice. It held so much force and confidence that Beltran glared at him and I looked at him with a sparkle of adoration._

_The ringing of my head faded and the scene slowly melted away until I opened my eyes and was right back in the cell._

“Wow. That was a really strange lapse in conscious princess.”

            His hand pinched my cheek and my own hand flew up to slap his one away. His pink eyes glimmered and he looked me up and down. My chest was heaving with so much disgust and anger. Each breath was long and heavy as I glared at him while my hands slowly clenched into fists. A small smirk slipped into his face and an overwhelming urge to kill him came over me. It rushed all over my head and I couldn’t remove the thought.

            He was a monster. A sick bastard. He didn’t deserve to live.

            “Looks like you remember now. I told you we went way back. We would’ve been so close if that brat hadn’t had came in right at the wrong time! That image of you crying on the couch is still seared in my mind, ah! That’s the stuff of dreams there. It’s probably even more erotic now that you’re a full body adult.”

            He was a monster. A sick bastard. He didn’t deserve to live.

            “Then my sister turned her back on me. I touched something sacred with my filthy hands. Something precious to her stupid husband. But now no one’s here to stop our little reunion.”

            I wasn’t me anymore. I was consumed by this anger I didn’t know I had in me. The nightmare of that memory was crawling its way up me. I couldn’t say anything because its hand was wrapped around my neck. My eyes were leaking out drops of hot tears and my fists shook uncontrollably.

            **Dazzling Gleam. Dazzling Gleam. Dazzling Gleam. Dazzling Gleam.**

A hollow, cold sounding voice repeated the same two words in my mind. The voice felt distant and still far away. But it kept up the mantra in a ritualistic manner, until it felt hypnotic like a spell.

            “Dazzling—Gleam.”

            “Excuse me princess, what was that?”

            “Mimikyu use Dazzling Gleam!”

            Mimikyu hopped up and was wrapped up in a ball of different colored light that was almost blinding to look at. He rushed forward and slammed himself into Beltran and his Pokémon and they were launched backwards into the wall by the cell entrance.

            I was still having trouble controlling my breathing. A sudden rush of excitement flew through me as I watched the three of them slam into the wall. It felt good to put the asshole into his place. He deserved it. He deserved worse. I could put him in his place.

            “Mimikyu. Use Shadow Ball.”

            Mimikyu turned to me with a worried scream, but I turned to him slowly.

            “Use Shadow Ball.”

            He sent a shadow slamming into where Beltran was trying to get up from. Bricks were raining down on him and he was shouting a flurry of curses.

            But his anger was fueling my own anger. My blood was boiling over and I wanted to put him down right there. I wanted to wipe the floor with him and I didn’t care how. I just wanted to be able to step all over the pieces of him that would be left.

            His pink eyes glimmered through the cloud of dust that was filling the room.

            “Sigilyph…use Synchronoise on that bitch!”

            **Grab Mimikyu. Grab Mimikyu. Shadow Sneak. Shadow Sneak.**

I still wanted to crush him. I wanted to be able to snap his neck. The nightmare was still wrapped around my neck. I can put him in his place!

            **Not now. Grab Mimikyu. Shadow Sneak.**

My body seized up. The coolness of the voice seemed to lay its own hands on my anger and spread a chill across my entire body. I shook my head and looked down at Mimikyu and saw him staring up at me expectantly. He was shaking slightly. Shaking in fear and my heart twisted itself in so much agony.

            I had almost forced him to do something unforgiveable. Something so cruel without a second thought. I was the worst.

I leaned down and picked up Mimikyu.

            “Mimikyu use Shadow Sneak!”

            Mimikyu and I were suddenly pulled down and I found myself standing beneath the floor above us in a black void. I could see the entire building from under here. Beltran was pulling himself from the wreckage of the wall and glaring around the cell, but it looked like he couldn’t tell where we had gone off to.

Beyond the cell, I could see the police officers in the midst of intense Pokémon battles with dozens of strange trainers. I tried moving towards that direction and I found that I could easily cross over to the lobby. The strange trainers wore ornately carved black mask that had differing expressions carved into them. Some were smiling, crying, laughing, glaring, and others held emotions I had no idea what to give name to. A purplish black armor like metal adorned their body and made them seem like knights for some long dead republic. _Beltran had called them the Faithful hadn’t he?_

Right in the middle of the lobby I saw Anabel directing a yellow Pokémon with spoons in its hands in a heated battle with one of the strange trainers.

            The anger that had caught me was fading off and I started thinking a bit more with my head.

            _Who was that voice earlier? The one that managed to pull me away from myself?_

It wasn’t one I had heard before, but it knew Mimikyu’s moves and it heard all the thoughts that had run through my head. I needed to talk to someone who could help me make sense of all of this! I needed to find Maxie and get the hell out of here!

            I began to move through the void and tried sort of following the stairs up to the second floor of the station. Except it wasn’t really like I was walking. I was just sort of floating and the floor displayed above me just snapped from showing me the lobby to the stairs and then the second landing. It was quite disorientating.

No one was really up here since they were all occupied in the lobby, but I quickly glanced at room floor to room floor to see if I would see Maxie. None of the smaller offices had him so by the time I reached the end of the corridor I was looking up into the large office of Chief Carrington.

            Chief Carrington was a fat, round man who only barely had wisps of white hair still sprouting from the top of his head. He sat right in a large, black chair wearing a black suit as he glared down at Maxie who was sat in front of him glaring right back. The man’s green eyes held a cold emotion as he stood and walked over to look through the window of his office out into the direction of the chaos of the lobby.

            “Now Mr. Maxie. Will you tell me this is not your doing as well? The day you and your friend arrive at _my_ police station and cause havoc in the city jurisdiction is the same day the station just so happens to be attacked? Please.”

            “I understand it might be difficult—to grasp, but this has nothing to do with Abelino and I. Like I’ve already tried to reiterate, we are not the ones responsible for any of this and you’ll only succeed in throwing off the investigation into the attacks by pinning it on us!”

            “It is not difficult to grasp. You’re far from an honest person and I have no reason to trust you given your criminal background and I have even less trust in some nameless nobody who has no record to his name in the citizen registry.

            Unless you admit to having orchestrated this whole operation or reveal information on those who’ve employed you, then I have nothing more to do than to charge you with impeding an international investigation and charging you and the kid as accomplices.”

            We didn’t have time for all this!

            “Mimikyu return us.”

            In a sudden rush, Mimikyu and I popped up right in between Maxie and the chief. Maxie’s mouth was wide open as he stared at the two of us in shock and when the chief turned back around at Maxie’s lack of response, he stumbled back a bit in surprise as well. I turned my head and waved at him with a very apologetic smile.

            “I’m sorry Chief Carrington, but I need this man.”

            I rushed forward and pulled Maxie up out of the chair and grabbed hold of his hand.

            “Now, young man. You— “

            “Mimikyu use Shadow Sneak!”

            “Use wha—“

            We were pulled down again into the black void and Maxie’s face was still wrapped up in total shock. I pulled him along as I began to make my way out of the station. Now that Beltran lost me, he’d probably fall back with the Faithful and spread out in order to find me and the minute he pulled out the entire police force would be after us as well. Everything was just taking more of a turn for the worst!

            We had finally moved outside the station and were walking beneath the sidewalk when I realized I had not clue where the hell the Pokémon center was!

            “Maxie! Do you have any idea where the center is? Who knows how much trouble Grimsley and Wallace have found themselves in and we need to get them and leave.”

            “Have you been crying!?”

            “Focus! That’s not important.”

            “It totally is important! Abelino, why were you cr—“

            “I had a bad dream.”

            “A bad dream?”

            “Yeah, it was a memory of when I fought with my mother that night Wallace and Grimsley found me. It took until now for things to really set in for me.”

            Maxie tugged us to a stop and he tried awkwardly to turn my head left and right to get a good look at me. He held my face in his hands and he simply stared right at me. Then he hugged me. He hugged me really tight and I felt a slight pain in my heart to be lying to him, but I didn’t want him to know about Beltran. This wasn’t a burden or emotion Maxie had to carry with him.

            “We’re not done talking about this. Once were safely on the road to Jubilife City, we’’ have plenty of time to talk about how you’re trying to very unsuccessfully handle emotions on your own.”

            “I thought I was doing a pretty great job.”

            “No, you totally suck.”

            Maxie pulled away and let out a laugh. Still shaking his head, he took time to gaze around the black void and look up at the vertical image of the city streets above that we could see.

            “Where even are we now?”

            “Just think of it like moving through sewers, but with a see through roof?”

“Sure. That makes sense.”

“We need you to guide us over to the center.”

            “Right. Right. We can use our xtranceivers to track their location and that should lead us to their location, but I need these handcuff taken off me.”

            “Mimikyu. Use the move you used to break off my handcuffs.”

            **Shadow Claw.**

“Shadow Claw!”

            Mimikyu quickly swatted the cuffs off Maxie’s hand and he began to fiddle with his xtranceiver. A digital layout of the city glowed up into a projected map and two red dots blinked somewhere west of where we currently were. I heard soft little huffs and looked down at Mimikyu to see him struggling to keep a steady breath. Keeping us all down here must be really taxing on him. We’ll have to be quick.

            “Ok. Lead the way. I’ll hold on to your hand, but Mimikyu won’t be able to keep us down here for too long. Let’s make sure we can make it inside undetected. Who knows if Beltran’s grunts are already over there.”

            “When did you figure out Mimikyu’s moves? And who the hell is Beltran?”

            I slipped my hand into his and he began to run off in the direction where our city map was pointing us towards.

            I couldn’t tell Maxie the full story of Beltran. No way. I had to serve him the most vanilla version of it I possibly could.

            “He called himself the fourth disciple of the Father, that title that was scrawled on the ice gym’s wall. Once the police station was under attack, he slipped into the cell area and told me he had been sent by the father personally in order to pick me up. He had to have been one of the people that worked with my mom on that AMR chemical she was using on me since he knew her by name. I had to fight him off and while I was fighting him my—trainer instinct just sort of—came back to me?”

            I winced. _Shit, that was such bullshit!_

“It’s difficult to explain.”

            “Well, as long as you were able to stall the bastard you don’t have to explain. Just knowing you’re finding the rhythm of your battles with Mimikyu is enough to satisfy me. I was dying of worry about if you were safe or not and that idiot police chief refused to let us go check on you. I can’t even imagine what I would do if—“

            “It’s okay Maxie. Nothing happened and if it did, it was just me. No one important. My mother is just doing this fetch quest for herself and she’s managed to convince the bad guys that I’m somehow key to their little plans.”

            “Don’t be ridiculous. This is larger than your mother. That man or women, whoever the hell the Father is, wants you for himself. You said it yourself. That Beltran lackey told you so himself. And even if you had nothing to do with any of this, who the hell told you that your life wasn’t important? Think more of yourself Abelino and don’t think so lowly of me either!”

            I gazed at the back of Maxie’s head as my heart fluttered.

            _It’s still hard to believe people like Maxie can exist. No matter what everyone tells me I know even from this small time together that he cares and worries for others._

“Yeah, red heads gotta stick together.”

            “Right!”

            We had been running for quite a bit when I noticed we had begun to float upwards and the street and building floors above us started to get larger and clearer. I looked down and Mimikyu was passed out in my arms and I tugged Maxie’s hand gently.

            “Mimikyu passed out! Are we near the center?”

            “We should be right below it.”

            We stopped running and glanced up. We could make out the welcoming desk and lobby of the center and knew for sure we were at the right place, but we also saw more of the Faithful roaming around the empty entrance. We were already zooming back up very quickly and I pulled Maxie towards what looked like a closet before we burst back into the real world. The two of us stumbled forward and caught our balance before we rammed into a shelf full of cleaning supplies.

            The closet was a tight fit for the two of us, but at least we didn’t just spring up in the middle of the lobby. I wouldn’t be able to fight with Maxie since Mimikyu passed out and I wouldn’t have wanted to put more pressure on him even if he was awake. I looked down at him and rubbed his small body—feeling the small and quick breaths he was taking.

            Mimikyu had been pushing himself to the limit nonstop since we left this morning from the house and I hadn’t once considered how much I was relying on him. He was my first Pokémon and even if I knew I wasn’t doing it on purpose, I knew I could be doing a lot better. I had to get stronger and more confident myself so I could make sure he was happy and healthy and it would be difficult to do under the stress of our current problems. But once this was over, we could take a break and go our own way without maniacal mothers and pervert uncles and ambiguous terrorist leaders hunting us down.

            “You think Mimikyu is fine Maxie?”

            Maxie turned away from our map and looked him over.

            “Don’t worry Abelino. He fainted from exhaustion. Now that we’re here at the center, we can find a max revive for him to take so he can start feeling all better. Grimsley and Wallace seem to be hold up in a patient room in the Trainer Medical Wing which is past the door to the left of the welcome desk. On the way to their room, there should be a medical closet with max revives, potions, and full restores that we can use to heal Mimikyu.

            We’re going to have to be quiet and fast. I’m going to crack the door open a bit and see how many of those Faithful are out there.”

            Maxie pushed past me and cracked the metal door open a bit. I tried to peer out too as he pressed himself up to the small gap and looked around.

            I saw two of the Faithful standing still facing the street in front of the sliding doors. The doors seemed to be jammed as they kept trying to slide open but couldn’t seem to. It seemed really strange to merely stand in place like that when you had the entrance handled already.

            Maxie closed the door and turned to face me.

            “There’s six of them. Two at the front door, one on each of the two flights of stairs, and two standing at the reception desk. The closet we are in is behind a registration desk for minor injuries so we can crouch our way to just a few feet away from the medical wing door and then make a quick dash to it.”

            “Can you use any Pokémon to help us?”

            “No. They’d make too much noise both in releasing them and having them move with us. We’ll just have to be careful and quick. For the moment all of them seem to be standing in place, but that could change while we’re moving. Are you ready?”

            I nodded my head.

            “Alright. Follow close behind me.”

            Maxie moved towards the door and I pressed myself as close behind him as I could without getting in his way. He pushed open the door a bit and peered out before pushing it again to let the two of us out. We quickly pressed ourselves against the registration desk and moved up alongside it.

            It seemed strange to me. Those Faithful were just trainers working for the Father and yet they seemed to be lifeless. Back at the police station they seemed so animated in their battles, but now—there was no conversation among them. There was no sound or movement from them at all.

            We finally made it to the end of the registration desk and Maxie stopped us as he peered around the edge of it.

            “Ok. None of them have moved or taken notice of us. Now, we can’t rush over at the same time because that will attract attention. I’ll go first and open the door for us and you follow behind once you see me slip inside. Got it?”

            “Got it.”

            Maxie gave a small nod and turned to face the door.

            Still crouching, he quickly moved over to the metal door. Once he was there, he paused in front of it before reaching up and pulling the door to the side. He quickly slipped inside and motioned to me from behind its shadow to come over.

            I moved up to the edge of the desk and peered around to make sure the Faithful hadn’t noticed us yet and the coast was clear. I took a deep breath and held it before I looked back over to Maxie and rushed over to the door. Once I had safely slipped past it, Maxie quickly and silently slid it back closed. I let out the breath and touched my chest.

            “That was insane! My heart is going crazy.”

            “Mine is too. Those grunts sure are weird, but I wouldn’t want to mess with them when we’re out numbered.”

            “You think its fine to stand up now?”

            “Yeah, but keep a good eye on our surroundings in case any of them pop up.”

            We both stood up and began to make our way down the hall.

            There were tons of patient rooms lining the walls. A glass window usually let you peer into them and see what was inside. Strangely enough, there didn’t seem to be a single patient in any of the rooms I would look into. Some of the beds were still neatly done and looked unused, but others had sheets tossed about and pillows laying strew about.

            The lights were also not working. Instead, red emergency lights flickered across the white walls in silence as our footsteps gently echoed down the corridors. Posters outlining patient health littered the walls. One of them had a smiling male trainer that said: _Pokémon catching can wait. Get a regular check up on your journey today!_

            “Hey Maxie, doesn’t this seem rather unsettling?”

            “It does. There’s no medical staff, no patients, and no more faithful roaming the halls.”

            “But you said Wallace and Grimsley called saying they were trapped right? If the Faithful in the medical wing moved on or whatever, then they would’ve long ditched the place.”

            “Yes. You’re right, but we can ask them what’s going on when we get to their room. For the mean time, the medical supply closet is right to our left. You should head in and try to find a pouch or backpack to place max revives, potions, and full restores in. If you don’t find anything like that, then just stuff what you feel like you can carry in your jacket pockets. I’ll keep watch out here until you come back.”

            “Okay.”

            I turned to the door with a dull, red cross over it and pushed it open. The room was fairly large and had three shelves, two on the walls and one down the middle, full of what looked like different colored spray bottles. I moved down the shelves reading the labels until I found the max revives bunched together halfway down the middle shelf. I grabbed one and immediately sprayed Mimikyu with it.

            He stirred a bit, but otherwise stayed relatively still. His breathing did fall back to a steady and rhythmical pattern that had me sighing with relief. I kissed him on the forehead.

            “Sorry for pushing you so much buddy. I promise I’ll try to pull my weight more as your trainer.”

            I picked up a few of the max revives and a few potions, at first trying to find a bag or something to put them in, before simply stuffing them into my two jacket pockets.

            When I was about to leave, I felt a sudden chill rack over my entire body. It felt like there was suddenly slight breeze in the room and I glanced around in the flashing red light to see if there was some broken AC vent somewhere but couldn’t find one. My skin kept crawling as I looked around the room feeling as if I was being watched from somewhere.

            And then I heard it. A raspy, cold, distant whisper from the back end of the room. I looked down towards the back wall, but the shelves cast large shadows that obscured everything that was back there. It was clearly someone’s voice though and I took a step forward hoping that perhaps it was someone who had managed to hide from the Faithful.

            “Hello? Is someone there?” I whispered.

            There was no immediate response. Just the continued whispering.

            “It’s okay. My name is Abelino. We came here to help some friends get out safely. If you’d like, you can come with us.”

            The whispers subsided and I tried stepping closer into the back of the room to see if I could make out anyone, but there was no one there.

            “Abelino, have you gotten everything you needed?”

            I turned around to see Maxie standing by the door and I gave one last glance toward the dark shadows at the back of the room before nodding my head and moving towards him.

            “Yeah, yeah I’m ready. Sorry for making you wait.”

            “It’s not problem, but we really should get moving before anything else happens here.”

            We continued down the hall for only a few moments before we stopped at a door that had its window curtains closed so we couldn’t look in. I tried to turn slide the door open, but it wouldn’t budge at all. As I stepped back to look at the door, I felt my boots step into something incredibly sticky. I looked down and saw large pools of something littered all down the hallways and doors of the patient rooms in this part of the hallway. I kneeled down to get a closer look at it and nearly jumped back when I realized what it was.

            “Blood! Maxie these are puddles of blood! And there everywhere around these rooms. There are even drag marks on the ground going further into the center!”

            “I see them. I see them.”

            He stepped towards the door and gave a light knock on the frame.

            “Wallace, Grimsley, it’s Abelino and I. Open up the door.”

            We heard a bit of movement from the other side before the door slid open and the anxious face of Wallace popped up from behind it. He took one look at us and let out a long sigh before he waved us in and we quickly slipped in.

            The room was just like the others we had seen, but in the patient bed there was a woman with long black hair who had bruises covering her entire face. She was nervously twiddling with her thumbs as Grimsley peered out the room window for any sign of the Faithful.

            “What the hell is going on here Wallace? You said you were cornered in the center, but Abelino and I only ran into those lackeys up front. There is no staff, no patients, no baddies to be found back here and the only thing we found was blood trails.”

            “Maxie this is something totally out of our league.”

            “Don’t come at me with your bullshit talk now! We just had this argument this morning.”

            “You don’t understand Maxie. I don’t even think Cynthia knows how horrifying the situation we’re finding ourselves in is. Candice told us what happened to her at the gym during the attack and if what we saw here at the center is anything to compare it to, then we’re totally fucked! We have to just get out of here while we can!”

            “You need to explain to us what is going on is what you have to do.”

            “They’re killing people Maxie! Those pools of blood are the staff’s. We saw them use their Pokémon to slaughter the nurses, the patients, and the Pokémon they had. They just—dragged their bodies somewhere to the back of the center. It’s totally mayhem and I honestly don’t think I can move forward with this. Call me a coward all you want, but we’ve never been up against something like this.”

            Wallace’s eyes were brimming with tears as he almost shouted his words at Maxie. He was clutching his hand to his chest and just shaking his head over and over again.

            I felt incredibly sorry for him even if I wasn’t responsible for dragging him into the thick of all this. I was here because I was tangled within the mess and I knew firsthand who my mother was even if it was only recently. Wallace was here by choice but with hardly an idea of what he was getting himself into and really none of them had a clue what they were stepping into.

            “We have to do this! Cynth—“

            “You don’t have to do this Wallace.”

            All four of them turned to look at me. I felt a bit intimidated, but I kept going.

            “I understand what you’re going through and you really have nothing keeping you here in Sinnoh. It was unfair for the two of you to be dragged into this and I don’t want to have you dragged into this family drama of mine that seems to be at the heart of whatever is going on. All of this has been pretty hard on me as well so I can only imagine how you’d feel having Grimsley caught up in all this as well.

            Maxie and I can keep going from here. Grimsley and you should leave once we get out of here.”

            I turned to Maxie and nodded to him. He gave me a small smile and a nod back.

            “Yeah. We can handle everything from here on out. Once we are out of Snowpoint, we can drop you off somewhere and the two of you can hide until this all blows over.

            Wallace, where did you leave the jeep?”

            “It’s—it’s in the parking garage right next to the center. Third floor.”

            “Right. Here’s the plan. I’m going to call out Camerupt and have him use Earth Power on the outer wall of the room. It’s going to be very loud and will most definitely attract attention, but now that there’s four of us it’ll be easier to watch out for one another and we’ll be outside the center building.

            Grimsley and Wallace, watch the door. Candice,” he looked over to the woman who I guessed was the ice gym leader,” are you well enough to walk?”

            “Yes! I—I’ve recovered enough to run. I can keep up.”

            “Great. Abelino, stick close to Candice and be ready to follow me and make a run for it.”

            Maxie reached into his jacket pocket and threw out a pokéball. Camerupt burst out into the room with a large quake that would surely attract some sort of attention. Candice rushed over in her patient gown and grabbed my arm as I moved directly behind Maxie.

            “Camerupt use Earth Power on that wall!”

            Camerupt let out a loud roar and reared its front legs up before slamming them into the ground and the floor began to crack forward. The wall came crashing down as sunlight began to leak through the gaping hole where it used to be. Maxie pulled Camerupt back into his pokéball.

            “Let’s go!”

            All of us ran through the wall following Maxie and ended up in the first floor of the parking garage that Wallace had mentioned. There were dozens of cars parked neatly around us and the ones near where we had blasted through were unfortunately crushed by the slabs of concrete from the center wall.

            We rushed off toward the floor elevators, but right as we were about to reach them two of the Faithful trainers stepped out to black them and they had two Garchomps with them! We took a step back and I looked around for the ramp that would lead us up to the higher floors and when I caught a glimpse of it from the corner of my eye I pulled Candice along with me.

            “This way! We have to book it in order to make it to the top guys!”

            “Maybe we should use our Pokémon?”

            “No way Grimsley. They’d slow us down. We just have to book it like Abelino said. Start the car with the keys Wallace. We’ll only have enough time to jump in and push it.”

            I could hear the faint jingle of a car starting echoing in the hollow space of the garage and when I glanced back I could see the Garchomps rushing forward to swipe at us. I turned back forward and could see we were about to reach the second floor.

            “Everyone make a turn quickly!”

            Just as we rounded the corner of the ramp with a jolt, I could hear a loud crash and car alarms starting to sound off like a jumbled choir. I know it wasn’t a moment to think this, but man, living cooped up in the house of your mentally insane mother doesn’t do favors to your stamina.

            “Wallace! Where exactly did you park the jeep?”

            “It should be on the third ramp going up towards the fourth floor! We should see it right as we make the turn up!”

            And as if we had magically summoned it, I saw the humming black jeep right to my left and hurled us towards it. I flung open the back door and pushed Candice in before climbing up behind her. Wallace flung himself in and slammed the door with Grimsley hopping into the driver’s seat and Maxie riding shotgun.

            “Keys.”

            Wallace passed them off to Grimsley and he jammed them in and twisted them in place. The car let out another groan and we jeered around as he twisted the wheel and pulled out.

            We began to zoom down the ramps and as we reached the first-floor landing I could just make out the four forms of the Faithful trainers and their Garchomps. They didn’t really seem inclined to move and, in fact, they pointed a finger towards the car and their Garchomps opened their mouths and began to charge something up.

            “They’re going to hit us with something! We need to push past them!”

            “Well, they aren’t going to move so what should we do?”

            “Just ram them!”

            “Ram them!?”

            “Yes, ram them!”

            “But they have Pokémon with them, we’d probably hurt them!”

            “So what Wallace they trying to kill us in this very moment. Ram them Grimsley!”

            The car jeered forward and before I could even process what was we were about to do, Grimsley rammed the jeep into all four bodies and we watched and heard them tumble backwards from the hood to the windshield across the top of the car. The Garchomps hit the windshield so hard that a large crack had spread across the window right smack in the middle.

            We burst through the gate arm of the garage and turned with a hard skid to the right as we began to zoom past traffic on our way back to the residential part of the city. We did need to grab whatever was important and make sure we didn’t leave anything of importance behind. The box with my father’s pictures were still there and I just remembered I left the bag of new clothes Maxie bought me in Anabel’s car!

            “I think the coast i—“

            Grimsley suddenly lurched the car to the right just in time to dodge a flying Garchomp’s slashing claw.

I turned in my seat and saw the same two Faithful flying atop their Garchomp’s, but a bit behind them, I saw three speeding jeeps barreling towards us.


End file.
